Drone point view of the Shanghai skyline at sunrise.
Aerialperspective Images | Moment | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets traded mostly higher Monday, as investors assessed China’s manufacturing and industrial profit data.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.92% to close at 39,565.8 while the Topix added 0.26% to end at 2,758.07. Shares of Japan’s chip-related companies dropped as Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s free open-source large-language model threatens U.S. AI dominance. Advantest declined 8.6%. Tokyo Electron dropped 4.9%, while Renesas Electronics fell 1.24%. Softbank Group, which owns chip designer Arm, slid 8.3%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.51% in its last hour of trade, while the mainland CSI 300 dipped 0.41% to close at 3,817.08.
China’s factory activity growth in January unexpectedly contracted, with the official purchasing managers’ index for January coming in at 49.1 versus Reuters’ estimates of 50.1. In December, China’s industrial profits jumped 11% from a year earlier, however, on a annual basis profits declined for a third straight year.
Australian, Taiwan and South Korean markets were closed for holidays.
China on Sunday introduced new initiatives to encourage the growth of index investment products in its latest attempt to support its struggling stock market. The China Securities Regulatory Commission aims to actively support the growth of equity and bond ETFs, amongst other measures.
The move follows CSRC’s measures last Thursday to encourage large state-owned mutual funds and insurers to purchase more shares.
Last Friday in the U.S., the three major averages snapped a four-day winning streak. The S&P 500 closed lower after hitting new records on Friday, as investors took some profit to end a solid week centered on President Donald Trump‘s return to the White House.
The benchmark index shed 0.3% to 6,101.24, reversing course after hitting a fresh intraday record earlier in the session. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.5% to 19,954.30. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 140.82 points, or 0.3%, to 44,424.25.
Excitement toward Trump’s pro-business policies has largely pushed risk assets higher last week as investors focused on his inauguration. All three major averages posted their second straight positive week, signaling that the bull market is back in full force after December’s pullback.
—CNBC’s Alex Harring and Yun Li contributed to this report.
