Nissan Honda merger, Singapore CPI in focus

Asia-Pacific markets were set to start the holiday-shortened Christmas week on a positive note, after the The US government shutdown was averted during the weekend.

On Monday, investors will be on the lookout for any official announcements related to the Japanese automaker’s merger Honda Motors and Nissan Motor. Japanese media outlet Jiji Press reported that the announcement could come as soon as Monday.

This comes after Nissan shares saw a record high last Wednesday, after a media report that the struggling Japanese automaker was looking to merge with Honda.

of Japan Nikkei 225 is set to rise, with the futures contract in Chicago at 39,155 and its counterpart in Osaka at 39,070 against the last closing of the index of 38,701.9.

Futures for Hong Kong Hang Seng Index stood at 19,886, indicating a stronger opening compared to the HSI’s close of 19,720.7.

Australia S&P/ASX 200 started the day at 0.62%.

Last Friday in the United States, all three major indexes rose, helped by slower-than-expected inflation data.

U Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.18%, while the S&P 500 add 1.09% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.03%.

U personal consumption expenditure price indexthe inflation gauge preferred by the Fed, accelerated to 2.4% in November from 2.3% the previous month, but was still lower than the estimate of 2.5% by Dow Jones.

Excluding food and energy, core PCE rose 2.8% from a year ago, slightly below expectations of 2.9%.

— CNBC’s Brian Evans, Sean Conlon and Jeff Cox contributed to this report.