Tiananmen, Gate of Heavenly Peace, Beijing
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Asia-Pacific markets are set for a positive start to the week as investors await key economic data out from major economies around the region, including China and Japan.
China will release its official factory activity figures for November on Thursday, while the Caixin survey for the same metric will be out on Friday.
Australia and Japan will release their October inflation figures on Wednesday and Thursday respectively, which will give clues to future moves by their respective central banks.
India’s gross domestic product numbers for the three months ended September will also be released late Thursday.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 started the day up 0.11%, on pace for a third straight day of gains.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 is also set to rise, with the futures contract in Chicago at 33,745 and its counterpart in Osaka at 33,740 against the index’s last close of 33,625.
At this level, the index is close to breaching its 33-year high of 33,753,33, achieved on July 3.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 17,670, pointing to a stronger open compared with the HSI’s close of 17,559.42.
On Friday in the U.S., the three major indexes were mixed in a shortened trading session.
The 30-stock Dow rose 0.33% while the S&P 500 ticked higher by 0.06%. However, the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.11%.
Major retail shares rose slightly as Black Friday kicked off the holiday shopping season. Walmart and Target rose 0.9% and 0.74%, respectively, while Amazon ticked higher by 0.02%.
— CNBC’s Hakyung Kim and Fred Imbert contributed to this report.