Stocks in Asia were mixed on Friday as investors awaited the key monthly US employment report and subsequent comments due from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell later in the day.
Japanese shares erased losses, although the TOPIX posted its biggest weekly drop since August, and Hong Kong equities dropped.
South Korea was little changed and Australia was modestly higher.
Earlier, the S&P 500 Index rose the most in a month after climbing back from a drop of more than 1 percent sparked by the weakest reading on the US services sector in three years. Market pricing for a Fed interest-rate cut at the next meeting climbed.
This week’s slew of poor data confirmed that the global economy is struggling for traction, and went some way to validating concerns that the weakness might be seeping from the manufacturing sector into consumer sentiment, as the US-China trade dispute continues.
That is also driving bets that the Fed will pump more stimulus into the economy this year.
The US Department of Labor’s report, released after markets closed in East Asia, showed that non-farm payrolls last month increased by 136,000 and the unemployment rate dropped to a 50-year low, but manufacturing payrolls declined for the first time in six months.
“Markets are starting to reflect an increase in odds that we’re going into a global recession,” Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC portfolio manager Jack McIntyre told Bloomberg Television. “We’re already in a global manufacturing recession. The question is whether that leaks into the service sector and then eventually into the consumer sector. But we’re not there yet.”
The weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange rose 18.57 points, or 0.17 percent, to close at 10,894.48, up 0.6 percent for the week.
Equity markets in China remained shut amid a week-long holiday.
Hong Kong shares on Friday fell to one-month lows, after Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) invoked colonial-era emergency powers for the first time in more than 50 years in fresh efforts to quell escalating violence.
At the close of trade, the Hang Seng Index was down 1.11 percent at 25,821.03, down 0.5 percent for the week, its third weekly loss.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 0.7 percent on Friday.
The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares dipped 1.4 percent, the IT sector lost 0.2 percent, the financial sector fell 1.2 percent and the property sector lost 0.6 percent.
The market slipped in afternoon trade to its lowest level since Sept. 3, down 1.9 percent on the day, as local media reported the government would use emergency powers to enact a ban on face masks, effective yesterday.
The TOPIX on Friday rose 0.23 percent, paring its weekly losses to 1.95 percent.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index added 0.4 percent, but was down 3 percent for the week.
South Korea’s KOSPI lost 0.6 percent and was down 1.4 percent for the week.
India’s NIFTY 50 fell 1.2 percent, bringing its weekly decline to 3 percent.
The Jakarta Stock Exchange Composite Index rose 0.4 percent, but was down 2.2 percent for the week.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index rose 2 percent, paring its weekly losses to 1.5 percent.
Additional reporting by CNA and staff writer
‘DECENT RESULTS’: The company said it is confident thanks to an improving world economy and uptakes in new wireless and AI technologies, despite US uncertainty Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it plans to build a new server manufacturing factory in the US this year to address US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy. That would be the second server production base for Pegatron in addition to the existing facilities in Taoyuan, the iPhone assembler said. Servers are one of the new businesses Pegatron has explored in recent years to develop a more balanced product lineup. “We aim to provide our services from a location in the vicinity of our customers,” Pegatron president and chief executive officer Gary Cheng (鄭光治) told an online earnings conference yesterday. “We
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
LEAK SOURCE? There would be concern over the possibility of tech leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday stayed mum after a report said that the chipmaker has pitched chip designers Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Broadcom Inc about taking a stake in a joint venture to operate Intel Corp’s factories. Industry sources told the Central News Agency (CNA) that the possibility of TSMC proposing to operate Intel’s wafer fabs is low, as the Taiwanese chipmaker has always focused on its core business. There is also concern over possible technology leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺)
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
RSS