View of the Yarra River flowing through Melbourne city centre in Australia.
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Asia-Pacific markets kick-started the week with small gains as investors look ahead to key economic data and events in the following days.
Australia and Japan will release inflation figures on Tuesday and Thursday, while China will announce its trade balance and inflation numbers for December on Friday.
The Bank of Korea will be holding the first central bank meeting of the year among major Asia economies on Thursday, where it is expected to hold interest rates steady at 3.50%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 started 0.17% higher, while futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index point to a slightly higher open, standing at 16,590 compared with the HSI’s close of 16,535.33.
Japan’s markets are closed for a public holiday, and will return to trade on Tuesday.
South Korea’s Kospi opened 0.34% higher, while the small-cap Kosdaq inched 0.08% lower.
On Friday in the U.S., all three major indexes gained after a stronger-than-expected jobs report.
The S&P 500 ended Friday up 0.18%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.09% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked higher 0.07%.
The U.S. economy added many more jobs than anticipated in December, with nonfarm payrolls growing by 216,000, compared with the 170,000 expected by economists polled by Dow Jones. The unemployment rate held steady at 3.7% in another sign of continued labor strength.
The report sent Treasury yields higher, with the benchmark 10-year rate touching 4.103%.
— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Jesse Pound contributed to this report
