People standing outside a store at Pitt Street Mall in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on Boxing Day.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets opened higher on Thursday, with several markets remaining closed until Boxing Day.
Japan Nikkei 225 increased by 0.37% and Topix by 0.49%. South Korea Kospi increased by 0.12%, while Kosdaq increased by 0.48%.
The markets of Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong were closed for the Boxing Day holiday.
Traders in Asia will look to November industrial production data from Singapore later in the day.
At night in the US, markets were closed for Christmas. Stocks rose on Christmas Eve Tuesday as the market rallied during the holiday week.
The S&P500 added 1.1% to 6,040.04, a Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 390.08 points, or 0.91%, to 43,297.03. The Nasdaq Composite increased by 1.35% to 20,031.13, led by an increase of 7.4% Tesla shares.
Tuesday marked the start of Santa's seasonal rally, which falls on the last five trading days of the year and the first two in January.
— CNBC's Yun Li and Sean Conlon contributed to this story.