Asian stock markets closed with gains; Gold continues to break records

10:30

The futures contracts on Wall Street are trading with slight decreases of up to 0.1%.

09:15

The trading day in Asia closed with price increases: the Nikkei index registered a 0.6% increase led by the technology sector, the Shanghai closed with a 0.1% increase, and the Kospi strengthened by about 0.5%.

The stock exchanges in Europe, Hong Kong and Australia are closed today for the Christmas holiday and “Boxing Day”.

08:00

The trading day in Asia follows a positive trend: the Nikkei index registers an increase of 0.5% led by the technology sector, Shanghai with an increase of 0.2%, and the Kospi strengthens by about 0.4% with the Samsung Electronics share standing out with a jump of about 5%.

Softbank’s share climbs around 2% and breaks a streak of three days of declines. The Japanese chip companies Advantest and Lasertech are also posting gains.

The consumer price index in Tokyo rose by 2.3% in December on an annual basis. The figure is lower than the early predictions (2.5%) but it is still above the 2% target of the Central Bank of Japan – a figure that reinforces the estimates for continued interest rate hikes in the country.

In addition, against the background of growing regional tensions with China, Japan approved the defense budget for the coming year in the amount of 9 trillion yen (about 58 billion dollars). The budget for fiscal year 2026 is 9.4% higher than the current year’s budget.

The price of gold is now up 0.8% and once again breaks the all-time high, at a price of $4,541 per ounce. Since the beginning of the year, gold has registered a jump of over 71%. The price of silver also continued the positive trend, climbing by 4% to the level of 75.1 dollars per ounce – another record that completes a jump of 158% since the beginning of this year.

In the US, the futures contracts are trading close to the base levels this morning, after the last trading day on Wall Street (which took place on Wednesday, there was no trading on Wall Street and Europe last night for Christmas), ended with new highs for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones indices.

The peak in the S&P 500 raises hopes for the “Santa Rally,” which traditionally begins on Christmas Eve. This is a seasonal phenomenon at the end of December, where the market expects the index to register increases in the last five trading days of the year and the first two trading days of January.