ASIAN STOCKS TALKING POINTS:
- Asian stocks were mixed into the week’s end
- Trade worries again dominated sentiment although some beaten down stocks still managed gains
- The US Dollar was steady before the key payrolls release
Find out what retail foreign exchange traders make of the Australian Dollar’s prospects right now, in real time, at the DailyFX Sentiment Page
Asian stocks traded in mixed fashion on Friday, with some indexes holding up quite well considering that a key deadline for trade tariffs to take effect between the US and China passed during the session.
Markets were on watch as tariffs were imposed on Chinese goods worth around $34 billion from midnight Washington time. An additional $16 billions’ worth is likely to face them in a couple of weeks. China has said that it will implement barriers of its own of similar value on US imports.
At all events, trade worries remained front and centre for markets but the Nikkei 225 put in a strong performance anyway. It was up 1% or so in the Tokyo afternoon, rebounding from three days of falls. The Kospi and the ASX were also higher but stocks in Shanghai and Hong Kong wilted.
Currency markets were subdued on the whole, as they often are on Fridays when official US labor market data approach. Investors are looking for a chunky rise of 195,000 nonfarm jobs in June and an unchanged overall jobless rate of 3.8%. The US Dollar did slip a little against the Japanese Yen when labour-earnings data in the latter’s homeland were revealed to have accelerated way ahead of expectations in May. However, USD/JPY recovered all those losses and then some as the Asian day wore on.
The Australian Dollar managed gains on the day but still looks very much rangebound on its daily chart.
The lows of this month seem to be forming quite a barrier for the bears, who’ve had things very much their own way for much of 2018.
Gold prices were steady but crud eoil prices slipped back a little as trade war worries remained to the fore.
The rest of the economic day will of course be dominated by that US payrolls release, but Canadian employment data and US trade numbers will also grab some market attention.
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— Written by David Cottle, DailyFX Research
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