The Nikkei 225 index on the Tokyo stock exchange closed the session up 0.28% at 27,078.48 points. Markets in China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore are closed for holidays.
US futures weak in the first session of February, after Wall Street closed January with the strongest drops, on a monthly basis, since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
Dow Jones and S&P 500 futures are flat, while Nasdaq futures are up about 0.20%.
An assist to Japan equities came with the publication of the manufacturing PMI produced jointly by Jibun Bank and Markit, for the month of January, which was revised up to 55.4 points, compared to 54.6 points of the preliminary reading.
The figure stood at the record of the last eight years, from February 2014, improving compared to the 54.3 points in December and confirming the expansion phase, as it is higher than 50 points, the dividing line between the contraction phase – values at below – and phase of expansion (values above).
Japan’s unemployment rate was also better than expected, settling at 2.7%, down from the previous 2.8% and doing better than the 2.8% expected by analysts’ consensus. The number of jobs available for every 100 people looking for a job was 116, as expected, and up from the previous 115.
Asia Pacific equities also benefited from the RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) decision to keep the interest rate target unchanged at an all-time low of 0.10%.
The Australian central bank also announced the end of its quantitative easing program, specifying that the latest asset purchases will take place on February 10th. The RBA’s QE expects asset purchases worth A $ 4 billion per week.
But the disappointment was strong for the Australian figure for retail sales, which fell by 4.4% in December, much worse than the increase expected by analysts, equal to + 3.9%.
The slowdown was notable compared to the previous rise, to record levels, of 7.3%.
The stalemate of the RBA made the Australian dollar capitulate down to -0.52% against the US dollar. The currency then rebounded strongly and is now climbing 0.14% to $ 0.7074. The Sydney stock exchange closed up 0.49%.