Asia-Pacific markets set to open mostly lower on penultimate day of the year
Aerial view from drone of Tokyo Cityscape with Tokyo Sky Tree visible in Tokyo, Japan at sunrise.
pongnathee kluaythong | An | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly set to fall on Tuesday after a tech sell-off on Wall Street continued on fears of an AI bubble.
Nvidia shares fell more than 1% in the U.S. on Monday, giving back some of last week’s more than 5% gain. Palantir Technologies and Meta Platforms also suffered losses, like Oracle.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 started the day with a 0.25% increase.
But Japan’s Nikkei 225 Futures pointed to a weaker open in the market; The futures contract in Chicago was at 50,405 and the futures contract in Osaka was at 50,380 compared to the previous close of 50,526.92.
Investors will follow closely SoftBankAs part of its AI push, it announced late Monday a deal to buy data center investment firm DigitalBridge for $4 billion.
SoftBank CEO and Chairman Masayoshi Son said the acquisition will “strengthen the foundation for next-generation AI data centers” and advance the firm’s vision to become the leading “Artificial Super Intelligence” platform provider. Shares of DigitalBridge rose nearly 10% after the announcement.
of hong kong Hang Seng index Futures settled at 25,603, slightly below HSI’s last close of 25,635.23.
Investors will focus on China’s military exercises around Taiwan after the world’s second-largest economy announced new exercises around the island on Monday.
US futures were little changed in early Asian trading.
Overnight in the USA, the S&P 500 fell by 0.35%, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.50%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.51%.
Investors will look for U.S. home price data to be released on Tuesday at 9 a.m. ET and the Fed’s December meeting minutes at 2 p.m. ET.
—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
