BANGKOK (news agencies) — Asian shares were mostly lower on Friday, with Tokyo’s benchmark down more than $2 after a sell-off on Wall Street.
U.S. futures were higher and oil prices were little changed.
Bitcoin was trading near $88,000, according to CoinDesk, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday establishing a government reserve of bitcoin, a key marker in the cryptocurrency’s journey towards possible mainstream acceptance.
China reported lower than expected exports and imports for January-February, with exports growing just 2.3% and imports sinking 8.4%, the government reported. China’s trade data for the first two months of the year are usually combined to make up for distortions from Lunar New Year holidays.
U.S. stocks fell after President Donald Trump offered another temporary reprieve from his 25% tariffs on many good imported from Mexico and Canada, underscoring the uncertainty that Trump’s tariffs have created for the global economy. But investors showed little enthusiasm, unlike the bounce stocks got the prior day from his giving a one-month exemption specifically for automakers.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 2.1% to 36,898.25 on heavy selling of technology related shares. Computer chip-maker Tokyo Electron’s shares dropped 3.6% and testing equipment maker Advantest gave up 2.3%. Both saw steep drops in their U.S.-listed shares overnight.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng held steady, gaining 0.6% to 24,504.80, while the Shanghai Composite index was nearly unchanged at 3,381.33.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 tumbled 1.8% to 7,951.90. South Korea’s Kospi edged 0.1% lower, to 2,574.06, and the Taiex in Taiwan declined 0.7%.
India’s Sensex was down 0.7% and the SET in Bangkok gained 0.7%.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 tumbled 1.8% to 5,738.52 to resume its slide after a mini-recovery from the prior day clawed back some of its sharp drop over recent weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1% to 42,579.08, while the Nasdaq composite tumbled 2.6% to 18,069.26, finishing more than 10% below its record set in December.
Stocks have been buoyed by hopes that Trump may be using tariffs as a negotiating tactic rather than a permanent policy and that he may avoid a worst-case trade war that grinds down economies and sends inflation higher.
But Trump is still pressing ahead with other tariffs scheduled to take effect April 2. And the dizzying back-and-forth moves on tariffs is amping up uncertainty. U.S. businesses are already saying they’re confronting “chaos” because of all the uncertainty coming out of Washington. while households are bracing for higher inflation.
Next up for Wall Street is a report Friday from the U.S. Labor Department on how many workers U.S. employers hired last month. A solid job market so far, along with the solid spending by U.S. households that it’s allowed, have been linchpins in preventing a recession. Economists are expecting to see an acceleration in hiring for February.
Some big retailers have been offering warning signals recently about how much U.S. consumers can keep spending.
Macy’s on Thursday reported slightly weaker revenue for the end of 2024 than analysts expected, though its profit topped expectations. It also gave a forecast for profit in 2025 that fell short of analysts’. Its shares fell 0.7%.
Semiconductor companies and their suppliers, which soared to staggering heights because of the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology, led losses. Nvidia, fell 5.7%, while Broadcom lost 6.3% ahead of the release of its earnings report.
Indexes were mixed Thursday in Europe after the European Central Bank cut interest rates, as was widely expected.
German stocks rallied 1.5% as the market continues to feel reverberations from an agreement by the two parties that will form the country’s next government to loosen constitutional limits on borrowing. It’s a major turnaround in German budget policy and opens the way for new borrowing and spending over the next decade.
In other dealings early Friday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 4 cents to $66.32 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 1 cent to $69.45 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar fell to 147.72 Japanese yen from 147.98 yen. Rising labor costs have reinforced expectations that the Japanese central bank may raise its benchmark interest rate soon to counter surging inflation.
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