Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Monday morning trade, with multiple major markets in the region closed for holidays.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 0.35% in early trade while the Topix index gained 0.16%. South Korea’s Kospi dipped fractionally.
Over in Southeast Asia, the Straits Times index slipped 0.15%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.13% lower.
In the cryptocurrency space, bitcoin jumped more than 9% to trade at $39,140.59, as of 9:58 p.m. ET Sunday. Those gains came after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the electric vehicle maker will resume bitcoin transactions once it confirms ” reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend.”
Looking ahead, Japan’s industrial production data for April is expected at 12:30 p.m. HK/SIN on Monday.
Markets in Australia, mainland China and Hong Kong are closed on Monday for holidays.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 90.564 following a recent climb past the 90.3 level.
The Japanese yen traded at 109.77 per dollar, weaker than levels below 109.5 seen against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7701 after falling from above $0.774 late last week.
Oil prices rose in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.36% to $72.95 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.37% to $71.17 per barrel.
