New year begins in global markets

Following the weak official Chinese PMI data, Asia Pacific is trading in a sell-off led by Chinese indices. Following the official manufacturing PMI data in China falling to its lowest level in the last six months at 49 in December, stocks in Asia Pacific are falling led by China. Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost as much as 1.7 percent, while mainland indices are also down. China's CSI 300 lost over 1 percent in the first half of the session. While U.S. stock futures fell slightly, the Nasdaq 100 March contract is trading in the red. There were no bond transactions in the morning hours due to Japan's holiday. The Bloomberg Dollar Index is continuing its rise for a third day and is up 0.2 percent. Spot gold is finding buyers at $2,070 an ounce, up 0.3 percent Iranian ship in the Red Sea Iran has sent a warship to the Red Sea after the U.S. Navy sank three Houthi boats in the critical trade route in the Red Sea. Iranian state media reported that the destroyer Alborz had made a voyage through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Iran’s move points to rising tensions in the route, which accounts for 12 percent of global trade. Last month, the U.S. and its allies formed a task force to prevent Houthi attacks on commercial ships. Brent crude, which fell 5 percent in the last three trading days after the Iranian ship arrived in the region, climbed more than 1 percent again to trade above $78. Oil had experienced its first annual loss since 2020 in 2023, overshadowed by slowing demand.