Asian Stock Market: Evergrande fails to lift sentiment amid year-end holiday mood

• Asian equities trade mixed as off in Australia and light calendar elsewhere restrict market moves.
• Japanese data favors Nikkei 225, Evergrande jumps over 8.0% on hopes of recovery.
• Omicron fears ebb, stimulus hopes stay on the table but holiday mood restricts momentum.

Markets in the Asia-Pacific region fail to track Wall Street’s gains as an off in Australia favors the holiday mood during early Tuesday. In doing so, the investors fail to cheer upbeat headlines concerning Evergrande and from Japan as the US Treasury yields rebound.

That said, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rises 1.5% whereas the MSCI’s index of Asia ex-Japan shares rises 0.30% by the press time.

Hong Kong began the week’s trading with an uptick in Evergrande stocks on weekend news saying, the troubled China real-estate company resumed construction on nearly all of its projects with eyes on completing thousands of apartments before 2022 arrives. The stock jumped 10% initially before easing to $1.57, up 6.08% at the latest. The recent pullback in the quote could be linked to cautious sentiment ahead of two dollar-bond-coupon payments, due on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, the US 2-year Treasury yields jumped to the highest since March 2020 before stepping back to 0.75% amid hopes of faster economic recovery in the US, backed by upbeat retail sales during the holiday season and recent easing of the quarantine period for the general citizen from 10 days to five.

That said, New Zealand’s NZX remains directionless and so do stocks from China while South Korea and Indonesia print mild gains. Also on the positive side is India’s BSE Sensex, up 0.65% intraday by the press time.

It should be noted that Wall Street benchmarks posted notable gains the previous day but S&P 500 Futures print mild losses at the latest amid the market’s indecision.

Looking forward, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices and House Price Index for October will precede the Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index for December to entertain intraday traders. However, major attention will be given to the Omicron headlines and risk catalysts mentioned above.

Read: US T-bond yields cling to 1.48%, S&P 500 Futures retreat from record high amid sluggish markets