TOKYO –Asian shares were mostly lower Monday as investors awaited updates on the signing of a trade deal between the United States (US) and China and kept a wary eye on North Korea.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index fell .8 percent, ending the year at 23,656.62. Japan’s markets will be closed until Jan. 7. In Australia, the S&P ASX 200 declined .3 percent to 6,804.90. South Korea’s Kospi edged .2 percent lower to 2,200.10. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced .4 percent to 28,346.68 and the Shanghai Composite index jumped one percent, to 3,035.13. India’s Sensex slipped .1 percent to 41,542.51. Shares fell in Taiwan and most of Southeast Asia.
Potential moves by North Korea were overhanging markets between the Christmas and New Year holidays.
At a meeting of the country’s ruling Workers’ Party, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for his military and diplomats to prepare unspecified “offensive measures” to protect the country’s security and sovereignty, the North’s state media said Monday.
Kim has set an end-of-year deadline for the US to make major concessions to salvage a fragile nuclear diplomacy that hit a major setback at a summit meeting with President Donald Trump in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi.
The plenary meeting of the party’s Central Committee, which began on Saturday, is being closely watched amid concerns that Kim could suspend his deadlocked nuclear negotiations with the United States and take a more confrontational approach by lifting a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests.
A truce in the 17-month US-China trade war and positive signs for the economy have helped keep investors in a buying mood. Fears about a possible recession have also faded since the summer after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates three times. The central bank appears set to keep them low for a long time. (AP)
