A currency trader walks by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at a bank’s foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 3, 2021. Shares were mostly lower in Asia in thin trading Monday, with many markets including those in Tokyo and Shanghai closed for holidays.
Currency traders work near screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a bank’s foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 3, 2021. Shares were mostly lower in Asia in thin trading Monday, with many markets including those in Tokyo and Shanghai closed for holidays.
A currency trader walks near screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a bank’s foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 3, 2021. Shares were mostly lower in Asia in thin trading Monday, with many markets including those in Tokyo and Shanghai closed for holidays.
A currency trader walks near screens showing the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ), left bottom, and the foreign exchange rates at a bank’s foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 3, 2021. Shares were mostly lower in Asia in thin trading Monday, with many markets including those in Tokyo and Shanghai closed for holidays.
Shares were mostly lower in Asia in thin trading Monday, with many markets including those in Tokyo and Shanghai closed for holidays.
The declines follow a retreat Friday on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 gave up 0.7% but still closed out its best month so far this year.
Markets have mostly climbed in recent weeks as investors remain optimistic that the pandemic is slowly and steadily coming to a close, at least in the United States. The S&P 500 rose 5.2% in April, its best monthly gain since November 2020, when President Joe Biden was elected.
In much of Asia and many other countries, caseloads have surged and vaccination levels remain low.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.4% to 28,324.30, and the Kospi in South Korea slipped 0.2% to 3,123.47. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1% higher to 7,034.80. Shares fell in Singapore and Taiwan.
U.S. futures were higher, with the contracts for both the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 up 0.3%.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was steady at 1.62%.
With many markets closed there was little in the way of news to drive trading.
On Friday, the S&P 500 closed at 4,181.17. The index eked out a gain of less than 0.1% for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5% to 33,874.85 and the Nasdaq lost 0.9% to 13,962.68.
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