An aerial view of a container ship leaving a dockyard in Qingdao, east China’s Shandong province.

Future publications Future publications Getty Images

Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Friday after an inflation-driven sell-off in the previous session, with investors awaiting China’s trade numbers while reviewing economic data from Singapore and South Korea.

China’s trade data for March will be released later in the day, with exports expected to fall 2.3 percent year-on-year by economists polled by Reuters. This follows a weaker-than-expected rise in the country’s inflation on Thursday.

Singapore’s first-quarter gross domestic product grew 2.7 percent year-on-year, faster than the 2.2 percent growth recorded in the final quarter of 2023, according to advance estimates.

The city-state’s central bank kept its monetary policy steady, with the width and level of its policy band unchanged. Unlike other countries, Singapore uses exchange rate settings rather than benchmark interest rates for its monetary policy.

South Korea’s unemployment rate rose to 2.8 percent in March. The country’s benchmark Kospi index was down 0.26 percent, but the small-cap Kos Daq rose 0.82 percent, a 15-year high, after South Korea’s central bank kept policy rates on hold at 3.5 percent.

of Japan Nikki 225 There was an increase of 0.36 percentwhile broad-based topics There was an increase of 0.48 percent.

In Australia, S&P/ASX 200 There was a decrease of 0.30%.

of Hong Kong Hang Seng Index It traded 0.67% lower in the first hour of trading. China’s CSI 300 rose 0.28 percent.

Overnight in the US, tech shares pulled both. S&P 500 And Nasdaq Composite In positive territory, both indices are gaining 0.74% and 1.68% respectively.

On the other hand, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 2.43 points, or 0.01%.

Nvidia While there was an increase of 4.1 percent. Amazon The session rose 1.7 percent to an all-time high, and the alphabet increased by more than 2 percent.

apple It rose 4.3 percent after Bloomberg news reported that the company would shift its Mac product line to artificial intelligence-based chips. The iPhone maker registered its best day since May 2023.

– CNBC’s Hakyung Kim and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.



Source link