A couple looks at light-emitting diode illuminations before Christmas in Tokyo, Japan
Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were set to start the shortened holiday week on a positive note after: A US government shutdown was avoided on the weekend.
On Monday, investors will be waiting for any official announcements related to the merger of Japanese car manufacturers Honda engines AND Nissan engine. Japanese media Jiji Press reported that the announcement could come as early as Monday.
This comes after Nissan shares posted a record surge last Wednesday following: media report that the struggling Japanese automaker wanted to merge with Honda.
Japan Nikkei 225 is expected to rise, with the Chicago futures contract at 39,155 and its Osaka counterpart at 39,070 compared to the index's last close of 38,701.9.
The future of Hong Kong Hang Seng Index was 19,886, indicating a stronger opening compared to the HSI close of 19,720.7.
Australia S&P/ASX200 started the day with an increase of 0.62%.
Last Friday in the US, all three major indices rose, helped by cooler-than-expected inflation data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.18% while S&P500 added 1.09% and is technologically advanced Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.03%.
The price index of personal consumption expendituresthe Fed's preferred inflation rate, accelerated to 2.4% in November from 2.3% the previous month, but was still lower than the Dow Jones estimate of 2.5%.
Excluding food and energy, core PCE rose 2.8% from a year earlier, slightly below expectations of 2.9%.
— CNBC's Brian Evans, Sean Conlon and Jeff Cox contributed to this report.