By Gregor Stuart Hunter
SINGAPORE, Dec 15 (Reuters) – Asian stocks tumbled in early trading on Monday as investors reined in risk-taking at the start of a week sprinkled with central bank decisions and data releases.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.6%, led by a drop of as much as 2.7% in South Korean shares, one of the world’s best-performing markets this year. “We roll into the final week of trading for 2025 before many square off their books and call it a year,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone Group Ltd in Melbourne. “Some will have already done so,” he added.
“One suspects liquidity conditions will thin out this week from what is typical, but remain sufficient for size to be worked without excessively moving prices, but will then really drop next week.”
S&P 500 e-mini futures were up 0.1%, while the yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury bond held steady at 4.184%, as investors awaited a string of economic data releases and a slew of decisions from central banks. Among the central banks making decisions this week, the Bank of Japan is expected to hike rates by 25 basis points to 0.75%, while the Bank of England may make an equal-sized cut to 3.75%. The European Central Bank is expected to keep interest rates on hold, alongside Sweden’s Riksbank and Norway’s Norges Bank. Investors will also have the chance to check in on a host of economic data that were delayed by the U.S. government shutdown, including the jobs report for November and the monthly consumer price index. In Japan, stocks clung to gains with the Topix steady after the BOJ’s closely-watched “tankan” survey showed on Monday that big manufacturers’ business sentiment hit a four-year high, suggesting the economy was weathering the hit from higher U.S. tariffs. Against the Chinese yuan trading offshore, the U.S. dollar was holding steady at 7.0532 yuan, hovering around its strongest level in more than a year ahead of house price and activity data for November due for release later today. On Friday, stricken state-backed property developer China Vanke failed to secure bondholder approval to extend by one year a bond payment due on Monday, a filing showed, increasing the risk of default and renewing concerns about the crisis-hit property sector. In commodities, Brent crude was 0.3% higher at $61.30 after Imperial Oil said on Sunday it had issued a fire alert at its 120,000 barrel-per-day refinery facility in Ontario, Canada. Meanwhile, Russia said that an oil refinery in Afipsky was undamaged by a Ukrainian drone attack. On the geopolitical front, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said “a lot of progress was made” in peace talks to end the Ukraine war in Berlin on Sunday. Gold fluctuated between gains and losses after a four-day rally last week that saw it approach its record high of $4,381.21. Spot bullion prices were down 0.1% at $4,299.69. Cryptocurrency markets remained under pressure for a fourth consecutive day, with bitcoin last down 0.3% at $88,235.59 and ether= 0.5% lower at $3,065.62.
(Reporting by Gregor Stuart HunterEditing by Shri Navaratnam)
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