China stocks rise amid broader gains in Asia markets as PBOC reportedly signals rate cuts

Asia-Pacific markets opened higher Friday, breaking ranks with Wall Street peers that ended lower on the first trading session of 2025, weighed down by tech stocks.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.35%, while mainland China’s benchmark CSI 300 index gained 0.13%, recovering from the broad declines on Thursday.

The People’s Bank of China is reportedly planning to cut interest rates “at an appropriate time” this year, the Financial Times reported citing comments from the central bank. The country’s 7-day reverse repo rate is currently set at 1.5%.

Separately, China’s commerce ministry plans to impose export restrictions on certain technology used to make battery components and for processing critical minerals like lithium and gallium, according to a notice issued on Thursday.

Investors in Asia will continue to assess the political uncertainty in South Korea as the country’s corruption watchdog seeks to execute an arrest warrant for impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, according to local media Yonhap News. Yoon’s short-lived martial law attempt on Dec. 3 has led to a political turmoil in the country.

The three major U.S. indexes ended the first trading session of the new year lower, extending the weakness at the end of 2024, signaling the markets may not see a “Santa Claus rally” this year.

Investors were hoping for a “Santa Claus Rally” which spans the last five trading days of a year and the first two trading days of the following January. During this stretch of time, the S&P 500 has gained an averaged 1.3% while nearly 80% of the time finishing higher, Dow Jones Market Data going back to 1950 showed.

Overnight stateside, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 151.95 points, or 0.36%, to end at 42,392.27, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.22% to 5,868.55 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 0.16% to 19,280.79.

That marked the fifth straight session in the red for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, their longest losing streaks since April. Big tech stocks weighed down the market, with Apple falling 2.6%, and Tesla slumping 6% on lower annual deliveries.

— CNBC’s Jesse Pound and Christina Cheddar Berk contributed to this report.