North Korea fired what looked to be a ballistic missile near its coast. The missile reportedly landed in the Sea of Japan after staying in the air for 6 minutes. This is the ninth missile the hermit state has tested this year, as it faces increasing pressure from the U.S. and historical ally China over its missile testing program.
Japanese futures indicated a moderately higher open on Monday. Nikkei futures in Chicago and Osaka both traded 0.17 percent higher at 19,720, compared to the Nikkei 225’s close of 19,686.84 last Friday.
In Australia, SPI futures were up 0.2 percent at 5,763 against the S&P/ASX 200’s last close of 5,751.664.
Markets in China are closed for a public holiday today.
Stateside, Wall Street will be closed for Memorial Day, after closing mixed last Friday following the release of the second reading of Q1 GDP numbers. The Dow Jones industrial average was mostly flat, closing lower by 0.01 percent or 2.67 points at 21,080.28, while the S&P 500 edged higher by 0.03 percent or 0.75 points to finish at 2,415.82. The Nasdaq gained 0.08 percent or 4.94 points to end at 6,210.19.
Oil prices gained on Friday after initially falling following OPEC’s decision to extend output cuts, but finished the week lower. Brent crude futures settled 1.3 percent higher at $52.15 a barrel and U.S. crude futures were up 1.8 percent at $49.80.
In currency news, the dollar was flat against a basket of six rival currencies after reaching a near six-and-a-half month low last week. The dollar last traded at 97.397.
The greenback slipped against the yen to trade at 111.24, compared to levels around 111.5 seen last week. Meanwhile, the Australian dollar softened against the dollar to trade at $0.7436.