Marketmind: Nikkei eyes 40,000
By Jamie McGeever
(Reuters) — A look at the day ahead in Asian markets.
Stock markets in Asia start the week with clear momentum behind them, especially in Japan and China, but may be vulnerable to a spot of profit-taking as investors pause for breath after last week's tech- and AI-fueled global buying frenzy.
The Asian economic calendar on Monday is light, with Japanese producer price inflation for January the main event, followed by industrial production from Singapore.
China's CSI 300 index of blue chip shares eked out a slender rise on Friday to seal its ninth straight day of gains and best run since January 2018. Another rise on Monday would mark its longest winning streak since late 2014.
Friday's rise was only 0.1% though, suggesting fatigue may be setting in.
For Japan, however, there's little sign of fatigue yet, at least not on the surface, with the Nikkei 225 surging more than 2% on Friday to a new all-time high. The 40,000-point mark will surely be traders' near-term target now.
The weak yen continues to help make Japanese assets attractive to foreign investors, and the dollar goes into Monday's session comfortably above 150.00 yen. Again, is a bout of profit-taking or even intervention imminent, or does recent momentum persist?
Hedge funds' bearish positioning in the yen has grown to historically high levels, the latest U.S. futures market figures show, so perhaps the FX market is ripe for a correction.
The dollar has had a good start to the year, up 2.5% against a basket of G10 currencies and even more against some key Asian currencies, most notably the yen. Morgan Stanley analysts recommend trimming dollar exposure against emerging Asia.
Japanese services PPI ended last year running at an annual rate of
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