Night view of Shanghai, China
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Asian markets were mixed on Friday, with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell saying the central bank was in no rush to cut interest rates, Wall Street stocks falling and investors also assessing economic data from China and Japan.
In a speech in Dallas, Powell noted that strong U.S. economic growth will allow policymakers to comfortably decide how much and how quickly to cut interest rates.
In Asia, investors on Friday assessed key economic data from China, which included October retail sales, industrial production and urban unemployment figures.
China’s retail sales rose more than expected in October, while industrial production and investment data fell short of expectations.
The urban unemployment rate fell to 5% in October, down from 5.1% in September.
As of the last hour of trading, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.04%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 Index fell 1.75% to close at 3,968.83 points.
In addition, Japan announced on Friday that its third-quarter GDP increased by 0.3% annually, ending two consecutive quarters of decline from the same period last year. On a quarterly basis, GDP grew 0.2%, in line with expectations in a Reuters poll.
Japanese Nikkei 225 Index After the GDP announcement, the stock rose 0.28% to close at 38,642.91 points, while the Composite Index rose 0.39% to close at 2,711.64 points. The yen strengthened slightly to 156.19 against the dollar, with initial weakness following the GDP release.
Korean Cospi The Kosdak index fell slightly to close at 2,416.86 points, although shares of heavyweight Samsung Electronics rose 7.21%, while the small-cap Kosdaq index rose 0.57% to close at 685.42 points.
Australian S&P/ASX 200 Index It rose 0.74% to close at 8,285.2.
All three major U.S. indexes fell overnight, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.47%.
The S&P 500 fell 0.6% and the Nasdaq fell 0.64%.
As the market rally cooled, the so-called “Trump trade” also lost steam. Tesla fell 5.8%, while the small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 It fell more than 1%, underperforming the major averages.
—CNBC’s Brian Evans and Sarah Min contributed to this report.
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