Singapore skyline on September 18, 2016.
Rustam Azmi | News Getty Images | Getty Images
Australian shares opened higher, while other Asian markets will resume trading after the New Year holidays.
Australia S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.17% at the open, while Nikkei 225 Chicago futures traded at 39,605, down from the index’s last close of 39,894.54
Traders in Asia will also look to Singapore’s fourth-quarter gross domestic product. According to a Reuters poll, GDP is expected to grow by 3.3 percent compared to last year.
Other available economic indicators include China’s Caixin manufacturing PMI for December. Economists forecast manufacturing activity to come in at 51.7, up modestly from 51.5 in November, according to LSEG data.
Markets in Japan remained closed on Thursday and Friday for a public holiday.
U.S. stock futures were little changed as traders prepared for the new year, after all three major indexes posted double-digit annual gains.
Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were flat, while S&P 500 futures gained 0.06 percent Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.17%.
The S&P 500 posted annual gains of more than 20% for the second year in a row, jumping 23.31%, building on a 24.2% gain in 2023. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 12.88% last year, while the Nasdaq rose by 28.64%.
— CNBC’s Christina Cheddar Berk contributed to this report.
