HONG KONG, Dec 31, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Asian stocks were mixed at the start of the final trading day of 2025 on Wednesday, with some tracking Wall Street losses as investors eased towards the New Year break. Trading remained thin in the holiday-shortened week, though precious metals appeared to steady after seeing a sharp pullback from recent record highs. Markets in Hong Kong and Australia edged lower while Shanghai and Taipei saw small morning gains in what has been a strong year for worldwide markets. The movements came after Wall Street's main indices closed slightly lower on Tuesday as worries over valuations of artificial intelligence (AI) stocks lingered. Still, US indices remained on track for solid gains over 2025 as a whole, and markets in Asia similarly enjoyed a healthy year. Seoul's Kospi climbed more than 75 percent and Tokyo's Nikkei 225 more than 26 percent over 2025. Both markets were closed on Wednesday. Official data showed factory activity in China ticked up slightly in December, a silver lining to an otherwise lacklustre end to the year for the world's second-largest economy. The Federal Reserve's monetary easing in the second half of this year has been a key driver of the global market improvements, compounding a surge in the tech sector on the back of the vast amounts of cash pumped into AI. Minutes of the Fed's recent policy meeting in December indicated that most of its officials see future rate cuts as appropriate, if inflation cools over time as expected. Some of the biggest recent movement has come with precious metals like gold thanks to their status as a safe-haven investment amid geopolitical unrest. Both gold and silver climbed to records in the past week, though decreased in recent days. Gold sat at about $4,370 per ounce on Wednesday, and silver at $74.96. - Key figures at around 0230 GMT - Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.8 percent at 25,652.98 (open) Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.2 percent at 3,974.43 (open) Tokyo - market closed for holiday Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1740 from $1.1774 on Tuesday Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3462 from $1.3503 Dollar/yen: UP at 156.48 yen from 156.00 yen Euro/pound: UP at 87.20 pence from 87.15 pence West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.1 percent at $61.24 per barrel Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.1 percent at $57.86 per barrel New York - Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 48,367.06 (close) London - FTSE 100: UP 0.7 percent at 9,940.71 (close)