Asia markets poised for mixed open as they kickstart holiday-shortened week; central bank decisions in focus

Asia-Pacific stocks were set for a mixed open as they kickstart a holiday-shortened trading week for some markets.

Investors will watch out for key central bank decisions this week, especially from the Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday and the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday.

On Monday, private surveys on service sector activity will be released from China and Hong Kong. Singapore will also release its retail sales figures for December, while Thailand will see its inflation numbers out for January.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 started the day 1.11% lower, retreating from its all-time high on Friday.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is also set to fall, with futures at 15,412 compared to the HSI’s close of 15,533.56.

In contrast, Japan’s Nikkei 225 is set to rise, with the futures contract in Chicago at 36,460 and its counterpart in Osaka at 36,400 against the index’s last close of 36,158.02.

China, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong will all see shortened trading weeks as the Lunar New Year approaches.

In the U.S., the S&P 500 notched a fresh record high on Friday as quarterly results from technology companies including Facebook-parent Meta topped expectations and the January jobs report came in much better than expected.

The broad market index added 1.1% to close at 4,958.61, above its previous record close of 4,927.93 reached on Monday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4% to also set a new record close of 38,654.42, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.7%.

— CNBC’s Sarah Min and Alex Harring contributed to this report