Australia

Australian shares are set to open higher, after Wall Street reopened with modest rises for all major indices following the Thanksgiving holiday.

ASX futures were up 0.2% or 15 point as of 8:30am on Monday, suggesting a higher open.

US stocks ended the shortened session with small moves led by gains in the Dow Industrials, closing out a fourth straight week of gains.

DJIA outperformed, rising 117 points to 35390, the S&P 500 gained 2 points to 4559 and the Nasdaq slipped 15 points to 14250. For the week the DJIA rose 1.3%, the S&P 500 gained 1% and the Nasdaq rose 0.9%.

Healthcare was the S&P 500's top-performing sector on Friday, advancing 0.5%. Communications services fell 0.7%, marking the day's biggest laggard. The top stock in the index was fertilizer maker CF Industries, which rose 2.6%. First Solar was the weakest performer on the day, dropping 3.3%.

In commodity markets, Brent crude oil fell 1.0% to US$80.58 a barrel while gold was up 0.4% to US$2,000.82.

In local bond markets, the yield on Australian 2 Year government bonds was up at 4.24% while the 10 Year yield was also up at 4.54%. US Treasury notes were up, with the 2 Year yield at 4.95% and the 10 Year yield at 4.47%.

The Australian dollar was unchanged at 65.84. The Wall Street Journal Dollar Index, which tracks the US dollar against 16 other currencies, was down at 98.11.

Asia

Chinese shares closed lower. Despite recent stimulus measures on the property sector by the Chinese government, "reservations continue to be in place with the property sector unwinding its earlier gains," IG market strategist Jun Rong Yeap said. PMI data from Australia, Europe and Japan also indicate that global demand may remain subdued and likely cloud China's recovery, Yeap said. Software companies led the losses with Beijing Kingsoft Office Software down 4.9% and Shanghai Baosight Software 2.4% lower. Food retail stocks rose with Yonghui Superstores gaining 1.3% and Shandong Huifa Foodstuff up 10%. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed 0.7% lower, the Shenzhen Composite Index lost 1.1% while the ChiNext Price Index ended down 1.2%.

Hong Kong shares closed lower, with market sentiment subdued on continued concerns about China's economic recovery. Despite the recent stimulus measures in China's property sector, investors are "still not fully convinced" that a sustained improvement in economic conditions can be achieved just yet, IG market strategist Jun Rong Yeap says in a note. Declines were broad-based. Chow Tai Fook Jewellery dropped 11% after weaker-than-expected China sales in 1H. Property companies were among the worst performers, with Country Garden Services and China Resources Land losing 2.9% each. In the auto sector, BYD lost 5.5% and Geely Automobile shed 3.8%. Sinopharm Group was among the few gainers, rising 0.3%. The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 2.0% to 17559.42.

The Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.5% to close at 33625.53, buoyed by Japan's softer-than-expected October core CPI and JPY weakness. The best performers on the benchmark index included automakers such as Mazda Motor, which rose 3.0%, and Toyota Motor, which added 2.8%. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries climbed 6.2% on media reports that it expects its defense sales to double to Y1 trillion in FY 2026. The broader Topix index closed 0.5% higher at 2390.94. USD/JPY was at 149.24, up from 148.74 as of Wednesday's Tokyo stock-market close. The 10-year JGB yield rose 4.5 bps to 0.770%. The Japanese stock market was closed for a holiday on Thursday.

Indian shares ended slightly lower, with weakness in tech stocks offsetting banking gains. HCL Technologies dropped 1.55% and Wipro was down 1.5%. Tech Mahindra fell 1.0% and Tata Consultancy Services was down 1.5%. Bank and steel companies led gains. Axis Bank and JSW Steel rose 0.9% and 0.8%, respectively. HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank both rose 0.7%. The benchmark Sensex closed 0.1% lower at 65970.04, closing the week 0.3% lower. Investors are waiting for India's GDP data due next week.

Europe

European stocks closed higher, with the pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 up 0.3% at 459.98 in a quiet session with U.S. markets only open for half a day due to the Thanksgiving break. "Stocks lacked direction in low volume, low volatility trading as U.S. private sector activity expanded marginally and German Ifo business morale improved less-than-expected," wrote Axel Rudolph, market analyst at online trading platform IG. Germany's Dax and France's CAC 40 closed up 0.2%.

London's blue chip index ended the week slightly lower after another quiet session with low volatility. The FTSE 100 index closed 0.06% higher at 7,488.20 points on Friday. Trading lacked the usual direction provided by Wall Street given U.S. markets were closed for the half day, with the index hovering in the red for most of the session. "A sprinkle of profit taking and some weakness in the resources sector helped to put the index on the back foot," AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould wrote in a market comment.

North America

US stocks ended the shortened session with small moves led by gains in the Dow Industrials, closing out a fourth straight week of gains.

DJIA outperformed, rising 117 points to 35390, the S&P 500 gained 2 points to 4559 and the Nasdaq slipped 15 points to 14250. For the week the DJIA rose 1.3%, the S&P 500 gained 1% and the Nasdaq rose 0.9%.

Healthcare was the S&P 500's top-performing sector on Friday, advancing 0.5%. Communications services fell 0.7%, marking the day's biggest laggard. The top stock in the index was fertilizer maker CF Industries, which rose 2.6%. First Solar was the weakest performer on the day, dropping 3.3%.

Best Buy climbed 2.2% as investors watched Good Friday traffic, while Walmart and Target rose less than 1%.

Amazon was little changed, with attention, at least for the day, on brick and mortar establishments.