A slower start to the new year for Japanese stocks
AxJ equities are performing slightly better to start the new year but Japanese stocks are down on the day as the government is reportedly considering declaring a state of emergency for a month to deal with the latest virus wave.
Elswhere, the Hang Seng is up 0.7% while the Shanghai Composite is up 0.8% currently while S&P 500 futures are near flat levels ahead of European trading.
For the Nikkei, it is a bit of a stutter to start the new year but nothing that really takes away from the surge towards the end of last year - for now at least.
