- Stock markets in mainland China and in Hong Kong, as well as through most of Southeast Asia, were closed on Friday for the Lunar New Year holiday. .
- China’s stock and bond markets, foreign exchange and commodity futures markets are closed through until Wednesday next week.
- Remaining markets had little to take their cue from as Wall Street has taken a three-day pause with the major indices incurring little movement.
SYDNEY, NSW, Australia – Stock markets in mainland China and in Hong Kong, as well as through most of Southeast Asia, were closed on Friday for the Lunar New Year holiday.
China’s stock and bond markets, foreign exchange and commodity futures markets are closed through until Wednesday next week.
Remaining markets had little to take their cue from as Wall Street has taken a three-day pause with the major indices incurring little movement.
“We didn’t get much of a lead-in from the northern hemisphere,” Tom Piotrowski, a market analyst at CommSec in Sydney told Reuters Thomson Friday. “Markets are in a bit of a holding pattern waiting for the next catalyst and it is just a question of whether that catalyst is going to be a positive one or a negative one.”
The Australian All Ordinaries slipped 40.80 points or 0.57 percent to 7,081.30.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan dropped 42.06 points or 0.14 percent to 29,520.07.
The U.S. dollar managed to creep higher, however the gains were feeble. The greenback inched up against the euro to 1.2127. The British pound dipped to 1.3797. The Japanese yen was a fraction weaker at 104.85. The Swiss franc was largely unchanged at 0.8903.
The Canadian dollar was slightly lower at 1.2722. The Australian dollar was a little softer at 0.7747. The New Zealand dollar edged down to 0.7218,
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones dipped 7.10 points or 0.02 percent to 3,1430.70
The Standard and Poor’s 500 inched up 6.50 points or 0.17 percent to 3,916.38.
The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite climbed 53.24 points or 0.38 percent to 14,025.77.
