China's biggest policy meeting in six years begins this week.
Wang Yukun | Minute | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly higher on Friday, breaking levels with Wall Street benchmarks that ended lower on the first trading session of 2025, weighed down by technical stocks.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.82%, while mainland China's CSI 300 index reversed a 0.28% fall, extending the previous day's broad decline.
China's bond yields hit record lows with the 10-year yield falling 1.5 basis points to 1.598, and the 30-year government bond yield down 2.9 basis points at 1.819%, according to LSEG data.
The People's Bank of China is reportedly planning to cut interest rates “at an appropriate time” this year, the It was reported on Financial Times citing comments from the central bank. The country's 7-day reverse repo rate currently set at 1.5%.
Separately, China's commerce ministry plans to ban the export of some technology used to make battery components and to process critical minerals such as lithium and gallium, according to its announcement released Thursday.
Investors in Asia will continue to assess the political uncertainty in South Korea as the country's corruption watchdog seeks to execute an arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol accused, according to local media Yonhap News. Yoon's short-lived martial law attempt on December 3 has led to political turmoil in the country.
The three main US indices ended the first trading session of the new year lower, extending the weakness at the end of 2024, indicating that the markets might not see a “Santa Claus rally” this year.
Investors hoped that “Rally Santa Claus” which spans the last five trading days of a year and the first two trading days of the following January. During this period, the S&P 500 has gained an average of 1.3% while nearly 80% of the time it ends higher, Dow Jones Market Data showed going back to 1950.
Overnight the state side, the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average lost 151.95 points, or 0.36%, to end at 42,392.27, while the S&P 500 down 0.22% to 5,868.55 and tech heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 0.16% to 19,280.79.
That marked the fifth consecutive session in the red for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, their longest losing streaks since April. Major technology stocks fell in the market, with Apple falling 2.6%, and Tesla falling 6% on lower annual deliveries.
— CNBC's Jesse Pound and Christina Cheddar Berk contributed to this report.
