By ZIMO ZHONG
Associated Press
HONG KONG (AP) โ European markets opened lower while Asian markets mostly rose on Monday as the week got off to a mixed start.
U.S. markets will be closed for Martin Luther King Day, a holiday.
France's CAC 40 lost 0.1% to 7,454.74. Germany's DAX fell 0.1% to 16,688.90, and Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.2% to 7,619.80.
The S&P 500 future gained 0.1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average future was virtually unchanged.
China's central bank opted to keep its one-year official lending rate at 2.5% on Monday as it injects funds into the financial system. This surprised market watchers as it went against the expected trend of reducing borrowing costs to stimulate the economy.
"The policy focus has shifted to the effectiveness of monetary policy," ANZ's Zhaopeng Xing and Raymond Yeung said in a report. "Today's withholding means the possibility of an RRR (reserve ratio requirement) cut in February is higher."
Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.2% to 16,216.33, and the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.2% to 2,886.29.
Search engine provider Baidu fell 11.5% after a local newspaper reported that the company's Ernie AI platform was linked to Chinese military research into artificial intelligence. Baidu said in a statement that it "has no affiliation or other association with the academic institution in question."
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 briefly surpassed the 36,000 mark on Monday for the first time in 34 years, but ended the day slightly lower, gaining 0.9% to close at 35,901.79. The Kospi in South Korea was almost stable at 2,525.99.
Ruling party candidate Lai Ching-te emerged victorious in Taiwan's presidential election on Saturday, a result that will determine the trajectory of the autonomous democracy's contentious relations with China for the next four years. The Democratic Progressive Party, to which Lai belongs, has always He rejected China's sovereignty claims. about Taiwan.
Taiwan's Taiex gained 0.2% to 17,546.82.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was virtually unchanged at 7,496.30.
On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.1%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%, dragged down by a sharp loss for UnitedHealth Group following its results. The Nasdaq was basically flat and rose less than 0.1%.
Stocks have been marching toward records for months, bringing the S&P 500 to within 0.3% of its all-time high, on hopes that inflation is cooling enough for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates multiple times. this year.
Treasury yields have already tanked in the bond market on those expectations, and fell further after a report showed Inflation at the US wholesale level was weaker. last month than economists expected. The data reinforced expectations for rate cuts a day after another report showed consumer inflation was warmer than expected.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 3.94% from nearly 4% just before the report was released. In October, it was above 5% and at its highest level since 2007. More flexible rates and yields ease pressure on the economy and financial system, while increasing investment prices.
Traders are largely betting on the Federal Reserve to cut its main interest rate six or more times through 2024. It would be a much more aggressive path than the Fed itself has hinted at. It has even warned that it could raise rates further if inflation refuses to budge convincingly toward its 2% target. The federal funds rate is already at its highest level since 2001.
In other trading, a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude oil lost 33 cents to $72.35. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 30 cents to $77.99 a barrel.
The US dollar was trading at 145.50 Japanese yen, down from 144.92. The euro rose to $1.0955 from $1.0950.
