Investing.com - Asian shares were flat to higher on Monday with several regional markets closed as well as China for the Lunar Nerw Year holidays.
The Nikkei 225 gained 0.48% and the S&P/ASX 200 was flat.
In Japan, the current account for December came in at a surplus of ¥961 billion trillion, compared to an expected ¥987 billion. Bank lending rose 2.3%.
Also in Japan, average wages rose 0.1% year-on-year in December, with the previous month flat.
Wage growth remains slow in Japan as cash-hoarding firms are reluctant to raise fixed labor costs and unions are used to modest pay hikes. The slow wage recovery amid rising prices for daily necessities has kept consumer spending sluggish and is clouding the prospect for the Bank of Japan's achieving its 2% inflation target.
Last week, U.S. stocks fell precipitously on Friday, amid a romp in technology stocks and the release of a relatively optimistic U.S. jobs report, which increased the possibility that the Federal Reserve could increase the pace of its tightening cycle this year.
A modest increase in nonfarm payrolls for the month of January masked an otherwise strong January employment report, when average hourly earnings surged to their highest monthly level in a year and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.9%, its lowest rate since February, 2008. The unexpected wage gains could boost sluggish inflation and strengthen the case for the Fed to raise interest rates a handful times this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 211.75 or 1.29% to 16,204.83, while the NASDAQ Composite index crashed 146.42 or 3.25% to 4,363.14, as its IBB Biotechnology Index plummeted as much as 4% on the session.