Asian Markets Mixed Amid Cautious Trades

Asian stock markets are trading mixed on Monday, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Friday, as traders remain cautious and are not taking any significant positions amid the latest geopolitical developments. Concerns of fresh war-threats in the Middle East increase after U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed a “big force” heading towards Iran. Asian markets closed mostly higher on Friday.

Reportedly, U.S. forces are building up in the Middle East and when asked, Trump confirmed that a “big flotilla” is heading towards Iran.

A latest report showed a bigger than expected improvement in US consumer sentiment. While the US Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged at its monetary policy later in the week, traders are still likely to keep a close eye on the accompanying statement for clues about future rate cuts.

The Australian stock market is closed for Australia Day on Monday. Australian stocks closed slightly higher on Friday.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.692 on Monday.

The Japanese stock market is trading sharply lower on Monday, reversing the gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 falling to near the 52,800 level, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 52,812.45, down 1,034.42 points or 1.92 percent, after hitting a low of 52,780.65 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 4 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down almost 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 4 percent and Toyota is down more than 3 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest and Tokyo Electron are edging up 0.2 percent each, while Screen Holdings is losing almost 2 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are losing more than 2 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining more than 3 percent.

The major exporters are mostly lower. Mitsubishi Electric and Sony are losing more than 2 percent each, while Canon is declining almost 3 percent and Panasonic is tumbling almost 5 percent.

Among the other major losers, Fujitsu is tumbling almost 7 percent and Socionext is slipping almost 5 percent, while Shin-Etsu Chemical, Suzuki Motor, Murata Manufacturing and NEXON are declining more than 4 percent each. Taiyo Yuden, Sumco, TDK and Ibiden are losing almost 4 percent each. Renesas Electronics and Yokohama Rubber are down more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Mercari is surging more than 8 percent and Furukawa Electric is advancing almost 6 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 154 yen-range on Monday.

Elsewhere in Asia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia are higher by between 0.3 and 0.9 percent each, while New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea are lower by between 0.2 and 0.4 percent each.

On Wall Street, stock indexes turned in a mixed performance during trading on Friday after moving sharply higher over the two previous sessions. While the Dow gave back ground, the tech-heavy Nasdaq saw further upside, closing higher for the third straight day.

The major averages finished the choppy trading day on opposite sides of the unchanged line. The Dow slid 285.30 points or 0.6 percent to 49,098.71, but the S&P 500 inched up 2.26 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 6,915.61 and the Nasdaq rose 65.22 points or 0.3 percent to 23,501.24.

The major European markets also ended the day narrowly mixed. While the German DAX Index crept up by 0.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index both edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices soared on Friday as fresh war threats in the Middle East raised supply disruption concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was up $1.75 or 2.95 percent at $61.11 per barrel.

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