Asia-Pacific markets opened lower on the penultimate trading day of this year, after Wall Street declined on Friday.
South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.3%, while the Kosdaq lost 0.41%. South Korea’s deadliest air disaster occurred on Sunday, claiming 179 lives when a Jeju Air plane crashed into a wall at Muan International Airport, bursting into flames. Shares of Jeju Air dropped 13% at the open.
South Korea’s country’s industrial output contracted 0.7% on a monthly basis in November, greater than the 0.4% decline expected by Reuters. On an annual basis, industrial output rose 0.1%, smaller than Reuters’ expectations of a 0.4% climb. This compares to October’s reading of a 6.3% increase.
The country’s parliament on Dec. 27 voted to impeach acting President Han Duck-soo, not long after President Yoon Suk Yeol got impeached as a result of his brief martial law decree, which plunged the country into political turmoil.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.4% lower.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was 0.21% lower in its first hour of trade, while the Topix traded around the flatline.
This week, traders await China’s manufacturing PMI on Tuesday, while markets will be closed on Wednesday for New Year’s Day holiday.
U.S. stocks fell Friday, led by technology names, but major indexes still rose for the week.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 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 slid 1.49% to 19,722.03, as Tesla dropped about 5% and Nvidia fell 2%.
—CNBC’s Yun Li and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
By CNBC