Asian shares mixed with most markets closed for Christmas

Stocks rose in China and were little changed in Japan on Friday with most world markets closed for Christmas holidays. The mixed session followed an advance during Wall Street’s shortened Christmas Eve trading as investors began the holiday weekend seemingly untroubled over President Donald Trump’s threat not to sign a major economic stimulus package approved by Congress this week.

The economic package remained in limbo after Republican lawmakers rejected Trump’s demand that the end-of-year spending bill give most Americans $2,000 COVID relief checks — far more than the $600 members of his own party had agreed to. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was virtually unchanged, at 26,663.86, after the government reported that retail sales fell 2 per cent from a year earlier in November, while consumer prices dropped the most they have in a decade.

The Shanghai Composite index surged 0.8 per cent to…