Sunrise scene on downtown Seoul skyline, aerial view of N Seoul Tower in Namsan Park in morning twilight sky. The best viewpoint and hiking from Inwangsan mountain in Seoul city, South Korea
Mongkol Chuewong | Moment | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were set to open lower on the penultimate day of trading this year, after Wall Street fell on Friday.
Australia S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.3% lower in the first hour of trading.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 futures index pointed to a weaker market open, with the Chicago futures contract at 40,210 compared with the index’s previous close of 40,281.16.
This week, traders expect China’s manufacturing PMI on Tuesday, while markets will be closed on Wednesday for the New Year holiday.
US stocks fell on Friday, led by technology names, but major indexes still rose for the week.
Blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 333.59 points, or 0.77%, to 42,992.21, falling for the first time in six sessions. The S&P 500 fell 1.11% to 5,970.84. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 1.49% to 19,722.03, as Tesla fell about 5% and Nvidia fell 2%.
— CNBC’s Yun Li and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
