Provides in Asia Pacific rose in Friday morning trade as the coronavirus situation stateside continued to be monitored by investors.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 arise 0.91% as shares of conglomerate Softbank Group jumped more than 2.5% while the Topix index continued 0.73%. South Korea’s Kospi also gained 0.43%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, on the other clutches, slipped 0.39% as shares of Chinese tech giant Alibaba dropped more than 2%.
Meanwhile, shares in Australia promoted, with the S&P/ASX 200 up 0.63%.
Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index traded 0.25% higher.
Markets in China are cramped on Friday for a holiday.
Investor reaction to the ongoing coronavirus situation in the U.S. continued to be watched on Friday, after the country suffered its single-biggest day after day coronavirus cases surge on record. More than 45,000 new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Wednesday, a memento that surpassed the previous April 26 peak by over 9,000 cases, according to an NBC News tally.
“The oppress on healthcare systems may force city or state governments to pause reopening of their economies or reimpose city-or state-wide lockdowns,” Joseph Capuro, intelligence of international economics at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a note.
Still, Capurso said: “We doubt a second surge of infections will reverse the current US economic recovery. The reimposition of lockdowns in select US cities will have a much smaller commercial impact than state-wide or nation-wide lockdowns.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve on Thursday placed new restrictions on the banking labour after its annual stress test found that several banks could get close to minimum capital be upfront withs in scenarios related to the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, banks have to suspend share buyback programs and leave dividend payments at au courant levels for the third quarter.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was up to date at 97.403 having traded at levels below 97 earlier in the trading week.
The Japanese yen traded at 107.17 per dollar investigating its weakening from levels below 106.8 against the greenback earlier this week. The Australian dollar was at $0.688, deceiving risen to levels above $0.695 and traded below $0.685 this week.
Oil prices edged higher in the morning of Asian clientele hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.95% to $41.44 per barrel. U.S. crude futures also proceeded 0.83% to $39.04 per barrel.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
Correction: This article was updated to accurately illustrate the direction of the Topix index’s movements on Friday.