Asian Markets Trade Mixed

(RTTNews) - Asian stock markets are trading mixed on Monday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, paring early gains after the release of disappointing Chinese industrial profits, manufacturing and non-manufacturing data. Traders also remain cautious ahead of the monetary policy decisions from the US Fed and the European Central Bank later in the week. Asian markets closed mostly higher on Friday.

Traders are also reluctant to make any significant moves ahead of the extended holiday on account of Lunar New Year in some of the markets in the region, including China, South Korea and Taiwan.

The Australian stock market is closed for Australia Day on Monday. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Friday.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.628 on Monday.

The Japanese stock market is notably lower on Monday after opening in the green, extending the losses in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 39,800 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday, with weakness index heavyweights and technology stocks partially offset by gains in financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 39,699.76, down 232.22 points or 0.58 percent, after touching a high of 40,255.68 and a low of 39,680.01 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly lower on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 6 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is adding 1.5 percent and Toyota is also gaining 1.5 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is tumbling 8.5 percent, Tokyo Electron is losing more than 4 percent and Screen Holdings is declining almost 4 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining 1.5 percent, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are adding more than 2 percent each.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Panasonic and Canon are edging up 0.1 to 0.2 percent each, while Sony is up more than 1 percent. Mitsubishi Electric is edging down 0.1 percent.

Among the other major losers, Furukawa Electric is tumbling almost 9 percent and Fujikura is sliding almost 8 percent, while Sumitomo Electric Industries and Disco are losing almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Isetan Mitsukoshi is advancing almost 6 percent, while KDDI, Keio and Sharp are gaining almost 4 percent each. Mercari is adding more than 3 percent, while Eisai, Tobu Railway, Yamato Holdings, Taiheiyo Cement and J. Front Retailing are up almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid-155 yen-range on Monday.

Elsewhere in Asia, China, Hong Kong and South Korea are higher by between 0.3 and 0.9 percent each, while New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia are lower by between 0.3 and 0.4 percent, each. Taiwan remains closed for New Year holidays. Indonesia is closed for Isra and Miraj holiday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly lower over the course of the trading day on Friday after turning in a relatively lackluster performance early in the session. The major averages all moved to the downside, with the S&P 500 giving back ground after reaching a new record intraday high.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the close but remained in negative territory. The Dow fell 148.82 points or 0.3 percent to 44,424.25, the Nasdaq slid 99.38 points or 0.5 percent to 19,954.30 and the S&P 500 dipped 17.37 points or 0.3 percent to 6,101.24.

The major European markets moved to the downside over the course of the session. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slid by 0.7 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index both edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices were roughly flat on Friday, continuing to look for support after the Energy Information Administration said crude oil inventories in the U.S. fell less than expected last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March settled at $74.66 a barrel to snap a six-day losing streak. WTI crude futures lost 3 percent in the week.