Asian stocks poised for weak start after US losses

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. US stocks extended losses as traders pared bets on tech megacaps before the end of the year.

Asian stocks were poised to open lower, tracking technology-led losses on Wall Street. Precious metals were in focus after a slump in silver and gold from fresh all-time highs.

Equity futures in Australia and Japan pointed to a weak start for their markets. That’s after the S&P 500 Index fell 0.3%, with shares of Tesla Inc., Nvidia Corp. and Meta Platforms among the Big Tech decliners. The Nasdaq 100 slid 0.5%.

The weakness in equities “is a reversal from last week when tech stocks led on the way up,” said Joe Mazzola, head trading & derivatives strategist at Charles Schwab. However, it “doesn’t appear connected to any single fundamental factor,” he said.

A gauge of global equities ended a seven-day winning streak, while a rally in precious metals also halted as traders booked profit. Silver tumbled 9% after climbing above $80 an ounce Monday in a surge powered by speculative trades and fears of a supply shortage. Gold lost more than 4%.

The S&P 500 is up some 17% year-to-date, underperforming many global peers even as it defied expectations for a tariff-fueled selloff. The MSCI All Country World Index has climbed 21% in 2025, while a measure of Asian stocks has rallied almost 26%.

Even so, an optimistic consensus is taking hold that US stocks will continue rallying in 2026 after three straight years of gains. Despite a raft of risks spanning a potential bust in the artificial-intelligence advance to unanticipated policy shocks, sell-side strategists are forecasting another 9% average gain in the S&P 500 next year.

What Bloomberg strategists say...

“The dollar and the S&P 500 were expected to shine in 2025, yet the reality turned out a little different as turmoil and backtracking on tariff announcements in April briefly sank confidence in American policy. The US benchmark has had a good year, but it hasn’t convincingly beaten peers, even in tech.”

— Sebastian Boyd, Macro Strategist, Markets Live. For the full analysis, click here.

Meantime, President Donald Trump teased that he has a preferred candidate to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve, but is in no hurry to make an announcement — while also musing that he might fire the central bank’s current leader, Jerome Powell.

Investors were also assessing the outlook for US interest rates and monetary policy. Wall Street interest-rate strategists — with several notable exceptions — expect stable-to-higher Treasury yields in 2026 despite Fed interest-rate cuts.

Read more: Wall Street Skews Bearish on Treasury Market in 2026: Roundup

Elsewhere in markets, Bitcoin edged lower on Tuesday. The cryptocurrency topped $90,000 in the last session before erasing its gain. A gauge of the dollar was little changed. In US government bonds, the yield on 10-year Treasuries slipped to 4.11%.

Oil rose as the US-led talks on Ukraine failed to yield a breakthrough and as China vowed to support economic growth next year. Brent crude is still on track for a fifth monthly drop in December, which would be the longest losing streak in more than two years.

Corporate News:

SoftBank Group Corp. is in advanced talks to acquire DigitalBridge Group Inc., a private equity firm that invests in assets such as data centers, according to people with knowledge of the matter. DigitalBridge jumped more than 40% in premarket trading.

A joint venture between Chilean metal giant Codelco and lithium supplier SQM aims to become the world’s largest producer of the battery metal, banking on low-cost, low-impact output to tap growing demand.

Airbus SE is churning out aircraft at a rapid clip in the final days of the year, with confidence building at the European planemaker that it can achieve the delivery goal it was forced to cut only a few weeks ago, according to people familiar with the situation.

Stocks

S&P/ASX 200 futures were down 0.1%

Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed

The euro was little changed at $1.1771

The Japanese yen was little changed at 156.02 per dollar

The offshore yuan was little changed at 6.9974 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin was little changed at $87,183.73

Ether was little changed at $2,935.93

Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 4.11%

Australia’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 4.74%

Commodities

Spot gold fell 4.4% to $4,332.35 an ounce