Asian Stocks Echo Wall Street Gains, EM Forex In Focus After Trump's BRICS Warning

Stocks in the Asia-Pacific region gained on Monday's early session following a record monthly closing on Wall Street. Emerging economies' currencies will be in focus after US President-elect Donald Trump demanded a commitment from the BRICS nations on using the Dollar.

Equity benchmarks in South Korea and Japan led to gains during the session's opening. The Nikkei was 186 points, or 0.48%, higher at 38,325, while the S&P ASX 200 was up 28 points, or 0.34%, at 8,465 as of 5:38 a.m. Future contracts in Hong Kong and mainland China point to early gains.  

The dollar index—which tracks the greenback's performance against a basket of 10 leading global currencies—was trading 0.27% higher at 106.02. Emerging markets' currencies will be under pressure on Monday following the latest warning by the US President-elect.

Trump demanded a “commitment” from BRICS nations that they will not create a new currency as an alternative or endorse any other currency to replace the dollar.

Meanwhile, stocks in China will be in focus after the latest set of economic data pointed to a mixed picture. The country's factory activity expanded in November as the official manufacturing index picked up. However, the non-manufacturing sector slipped slightly.

The value of new home sales fell last month from a year earlier to 363 billion yuan ($50 billion), reversing October gains, according to Bloomberg News. The stock market benchmark—CSI 300—closed Friday's session with gains of 1.14%.

In the upcoming week, the US is expected to release the Manufacturing PMI on Monday and the S&P Global Composite PMI on Wednesday. India's Reserve Bank of India will decide on its key interest rates on Friday.

For the last five years, the dollar has declined every December while global markets have increased by an average of 2.5%, according to Bloomberg data.

Stocks on Wall Street gained on Friday to cap its best month this year. The S&P 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.56% and 0.83%, respectively, on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.42%.

Crude oil prices edged higher after of OPEC+ meeting on production later in the week. The Brent crude was trading 0.35% higher at $72.09 a barrel as of 6:00 a.m. IST, and the West Texas Intermediate was up 0.38% at $68.26.