Asian markets sluggish as Lunar New Year holiday looms

AFP

Mon, February 16, 2026 at 1:04 PM GMT+9 3 min read

The Lunar New Year holiday has closed trading floors in mainland China, Seoul and Taipei (ADEK BERRY) · ADEK BERRY/AFP/AFP

Asian markets were subdued on Monday, as the extended Lunar New Year holiday approached and Japan reported lacklustre economic growth.

The holiday period meant that trading floors were closed in mainland China, Seoul and Taipei. Hong Kong and Singapore have half-day trading on Monday.

US stock markets will also remain closed for Presidents’ Day.

Limp gross domestic growth (GDP) in Japan rattled the post-election high of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi following her recent landslide win.

The world’s fourth-biggest economy expanded just 0.1 percent in the last three months of 2025.

The figures – which undershoot market forecasts of 0.4 percent – add pressure on Takaichi, who made boosting economic growth a key pledge ahead of her landslide victory in February 8’s snap elections.

The weak growth “implies that the large supplementary budget passed at the end of November provided no boost to public spending last quarter just yet,” Marcel Thieliant at Capital Economics said.

“In fact, sluggish economic activity increases the chances that Takaichi will not only press ahead with suspending the sales tax on food but enact a supplementary budget during the first half of the fiscal year that starts in April already rather than wait until the end of this year,” he added.

Tokyo was down 0.03 percent in early trading, while Wellington, Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Mumbai also posted minimal losses. Hong Kong was up 0.4 percent.

Markets had stabilised, though, after a tech-led plunge last week, when traders reacted to growing concern about the hundreds of billions spent on AI infrastructure and when, if ever, they might see a return on them.

Investors will keep an eye on artificial intelligence this week as the five-day AI Impact Summit kicks off in New Delhi on Monday, with the likes of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google’s Sundar Pichai in attendance.

While frenzied demand for generative AI has turbocharged profits and share prices for many technology companies, anxiety is growing over the risks that it poses to society and the environment.

The sense of calm continued on from Friday, when government data showed consumer inflation in the United States cooling slightly more than expected in January.

Analysts say the figure allows the US central bank to cut interest rates again later this year, but warn that policymakers need to see sustained improvement in order to do so.

“US inflation data was good. And the initial response in equities reflected that. But the devil was in the details,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com.

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“Annual headline and core inflation dropped to new lows, with the critical core number falling to the lowest level since March 2021 at 2.4%.”

Gold crept past $5,000 an ounce, a decrease of 0.8 percent after it climbed following softer US inflation on Friday. Silver fell 1.8 percent.

“Markets have priced in a higher probability of deeper Fed rate cuts this year, driving real yields lower and supporting gold demand,” Standard Chartered said in a note.

“We expect gold to remain well supported.”

• Key figures at around 0330 GMT -

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.03 percent at 56,923.44

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.4 percent at 26,662.38

Shanghai - Composite: market closed for holiday

Dollar/yen: DOWN 0.3 percent at 153.08 yen from 152.71 yen on Friday

Euro/dollar: DOWN 0.01 percent at $1.1867 from $1.1876

Pound/dollar: DOWN 0.07 percent at $1.3641 from $1.3654

Euro/pound: DOWN 0.06 percent at 86.99 pence from 86.96 pence

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.05 percent at $62.86 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.09 percent at $67.69 per barrel

New York - Dow: UP 0.1 percent at 49,500.93 (close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.4 percent at 10,446.35 (close)

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