Japan stocks rise on steady US futures

The Japanese stocks moved up as US equity-index futures turned stable on the opening session of the week. The Topix index has snapped its longest run of weekly losses in the past two years. The surge in oil price since August also propelled Standard & Poor's500 index shed losses for the whole year 2015.

After suffering losses for five weeks, the Topix index rebounded. S&P 500 index shed some early gains. The price rise in materials and energy shares boosted the index 2.8 percent in the previous week.

The markets were closed on last Friday on account of Christmas holiday. The markets in Australia, New Zealand and the UK were closed on Monday also.

As per a report by the Malay Mail, the Topix index gained by 0.5 percent in early trading, while eight of 33 industries retreating. South Korea's Kospi index eased 0.5 percent pulled lower by Samsung Group. The South Korea's antitrust regulator has ordered Samsung to reduce its cross-holdings by March.

The last trading week of 2015 opened on a historic precipice for stocks. The US stock market was never lower in any year ending with '5' since 1875.

The markets suffered losses in the fag end of trading on last Thursday before Christmas holiday on Friday. Chinese stocks fell the most since November.

According to Zero Hedge, the Japanese stocks outperformed the global markets today. Australian market was closed on account of Boxing Day. Investors don't like declining industrial profits and they don't like ongoing corruption investigations in China." said Andrew Clarke, director of trading at Mirabaud Asia.

"There are plenty of reasons to lighten their load ahead of the new year and there's no reason to open any new positions. That's going to exaggerate the down swing in the market," added Clarke.

The South Korea's regulator order had impacted the Samsung shares, which pulled the Kospi index lower.
Bloomberg reports that stocks fell in the wake of China selloff while crude and ruble retreated. The US and European equities further eased following the drop in Chinese industrial earnings. Mostly energy and raw material stocks pulled the S&P 500 index lower.

Vasu Menon, vice president of wealth management at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp in Singapore, said: "For 2016, the outlook should become less hazy and investors should enjoy greater clarity with regards to the pace of Fed rate hikes. Equity markets are likely to remain volatile at least into the first half of 2016."

The oil price rebound during the previous week eased the pressure on the energy stocks. The disappointing earnings were dragging global indices lower pushing energy companies for non-investment grade debt.

Since the US Federal Reserve announced the interest rate hike on 16 December, the S&P 500 index recovered some losses for 2015.

The Japanese retail sector and industrial production have been weakened more than estimated in November. A new report on last Friday indicated that inflation moved up marginally in November.