Little change in the Nikkei after the 4-day weekend
That said, Japanese stocks did recover from an early setback today so that is a positive takeaway for risk buyers when looking at the overall mood.
The Hang Seng is down by 0.4% amid the virus situation in Hong Kong – local infections hit another record high over the weekend – which is likely to prompt the city to ban dine-in services at restaurants to curb the spread of infections.
Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite is up by 0.1% as Chinese equities are keeping a little firmer. Elsewhere, US futures are seen up by 0.4% currently.
In the currencies space, this is feeding into a weaker dollar as the trend continues from the end of last week. USD/JPY is holding a break under 106.00 while EUR/USD is looking perky as it trades slightly above 1.1700 for the time being.