Markets moved in a quiet, holiday-tinged rhythm as traders picked through the year’s final thinned sessions: Tokyo nudged higher, Seoul ticked up, and mainland China showed mixed footing while precious metals stole much of the show.
Tokyo’s headline on Friday was a familiar one to investors watching central-bank signaling. Tokyo’s core consumer price index rose 2.3% year-over-year in December — above the Bank of Japan’s 2% aim but short of some economists’ expectations. That reading keeps inflation squarely in the conversation about whether the BOJ will continue to tighten or at least maintain a firmer stance than it has in years, and it helped lift the Nikkei into modest gains as real estate and tech stocks outperformed.
South Korea’s Kospi also edged up, while the smaller Kosdaq added ground. By contrast, China’s CSI 300 opened a touch lower, reflecting the usual disconnect when holiday volumes and policy signals collide: Beijing’s central bank had signaled it will ensure adequate liquidity and support financing, a comment that calmed some nerves but didn’t spark a broad risk-on move.
Silver steals the spotlight
If markets were otherwise calm, silver was anything but. Spot silver shot higher — jumping more than 4% on the session to reach fresh record territory around $74.89 an ounce — a staggering run that has seen the metal rally well into triple-digit percentage territory year-to-date. Investors point to the usual suspects: flight-to-safety flows, concerns about frothy valuations in certain technology pockets, and the broader narrative about AI-driven gains concentrating in a handful of stocks. That mix has pushed some capital into tangible stores of value.
Across the region, activity was muted by holidays. Australia and Hong Kong exchanges were closed for Boxing Day, and many trading desks were running skeleton crews or keeping orders light. Thin liquidity tends to exaggerate moves — hence why a single big silver trade or a thinly held tech stock can make headlines in otherwise sleepy markets.
There was also an unmistakable U.S. backdrop: Wall Street continued its streak of record closes, with the S&P 500 and the Dow logging fresh highs. That dual reality — U.S. indices setting records while parts of Asia wobble in lower-volume trade — is part optimism, part caution. Investors are still debating the timing of Federal Reserve rate cuts and re-evaluating which sectors truly deserve lofty multiples, a conversation amplified by advances in and questions about artificial intelligence. For context on that debate and how AI narratives shape markets, see the ongoing discussion about whether AI has reached a tipping point and what skeptics say about human-level claims (/news/ai-experts-debate-human-level-intelligence).
Policy whispers matter even in holiday weeks. The People’s Bank of China’s promise to maintain adequate money supply came through as a supportive note for mainland shares, but it wasn’t decisive enough to drive a regional rebound. And with U.S. futures ticking only slightly higher in early Asian hours, traders largely treated moves as incremental rather than trend-defining.
This stretch of low-volume trading can feel like watching the tide — small waves, big reflections. Markets are digesting inflation data, central-bank rhetoric, and a ferocious rally in a few asset classes. Tools that fold AI into financial analysis are changing how participants process that information; new services that layer Gemini-style deep search and prediction tools into market research are already reshaping workflows for investors and analysts (/news/google-finance-gemini-deep-search).
Expect the calendar to remain thin into the turn of the year, which means swings can be sharper and headlines louder. For now, silver keeps stealing headlines, Tokyo’s inflation print keeps policymakers’ options open, and holiday-thinned volumes leave the region watching — ready to move when global liquidity wakes up again.