Asian Markets Paused amid Fears of Omicron Looms Over Globally

Asian markets pause rally heading to the end of the year as holiday season raises worry on exponential surge of omicron variant cases.

The SET, KOSPI, TOPIX, CSI300 closed down by 0.04%, 0.43%, 0.45% and 0.04% respectively. The HSI closely slightly up in the green up by 0.13%.

MSCI Asia index ex Japan was up by 0.10% on Monday.

U.S. futures however started inching up moderately with Dow Jones Mini, S&P 500 and Nasdaq up by 0.05%, 0.18% and 0.29% respectively.

Crude oil futures WTI and Brent inched down on Monday by 1.40% and 0.12% respectively. Cancellations of thousand of flights in the U.S. and natural gas price reaching record high in Europe contributed to the sluggish price of crude oil futures.