Yahoo Finance Asian Equities Mixed As Investors Digest Trade Developments
Investing.com – Asian equities were mixed in afternoon trade on Friday as investors digest reports that U.S. president Trump is planning to slap an additional $100 billion tariffs against China.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lightizer expressed support following Trump’s comments and called his response “appropriate”.
The news came after China announced on Wednesday that it would introduce tariffs on 106 U.S. products including soybeans, cars and whiskey.
Overnight, the S&P 500 gained 0.7%, the Dow added 1.0% and the Nasdaq jumped 0.5%.
However, the overnight rally on Wall Street failed to translate after Trump proposed more tariffs against China.
Japan’s Nikkei was little changed by 1:45AM ET (05:45 GMT), gaining 0.01% to 21,650.50. The proposed new tariffs on China created a bearish economic outlook that again sent the safe-haven yen higher this week, which was cited as headwind for local equities earlier in the day.
The country’s top government spokesman Suga’s comments garnered some attention as he said it is important for China and the U.S. to build a relationship for the sake of growth and development of the global economy.
Meanwhile, Data showed on Friday that the country’s household spending fell 0.9% in February, the biggest annual decline in nearly a year. Analysts previously forecast a 0.3% gain. 7-Eleven caught some attention after its owner said he forecast a $3.9 billion full year profit.
Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese markets remained closed for Qing Ming Festival. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped 0.5% in afternoon trade.
Elsewhere, the KOSPI was down 0.6%. Index heavyweight Samsung Electronics (KS:005930) fell 1.8% after reports that South Korean prosecutors searched Samsung’s offices on Friday following claims that the company sabotaged worker efforts to set up labor unions. The company announced its first quarter operating profit beat consensus earlier in the day.
Down under, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.1%, on track to mark a weekly gain and snap three straight weeks of losses.
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