MARKETS: Asian stock markets are up, the year of the dollar is ending strongly

Asian stock markets continued their upward trend on Friday for the fifth consecutive trading day. MSCI’s Asia Pacific index was up about 0.5 percent early in the morning Finnish time.

In China, the CSI 300 was up 0.2 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.3 percent. The Korean Kospi was down 0.8 percent.

In Japan, the Nikkei was up 2.0 percent. Japanese stocks cheered on the weakened yen, which is believed to hurt the country’s exports. On Thursday, the yen’s exchange rate against the dollar fell to a five-month low. Governor of the Bank of Japan Kazuo Ueda refused on Wednesday to give concrete forecasts for the country’s key interest rates for the beginning of the year.

“I think investors will continue to be cautious about Asian stocks until 2025,” predicted the asset manager Abrdnin investment manager Xin-Yao Ng Bloombergille.

“May Donald Trump talks about his customs policy sooner rather than later, because it has an impact not only on trade, but also indirectly on inflation.”

The dollar fetched 157.73 Japanese yen on Friday. Against the euro, the dollar strengthened, and the dollar traded at 0.96058 euros. The dollar index is set to have its strongest year since 2015.

When it comes to macroeconomic publications, the days between the years are thin. On Monday, the United States will receive forecasts of Chicago’s purchasing managers’ index and pending home sales from December.

In the United States, there were no major movements in the stock indices or their futures during the Christmas holidays. On Friday morning, S&P 500 futures were down 0.2 percent. In Europe, the main stock exchanges were also closed yesterday, but trading is going on as usual today.