SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific traded mixed Friday after a rally on Wall Street. That followed a negative U.S. gross domestic product report, which suggests the Fed would be less aggressive in its tightening cycle.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.32% while the Topix index was about flat.
The country’s industrial output jumped 8.9% in June from the previous month, the ministry of economy, trade and industry said Friday. The print surprised to the upside after falling in May.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.85% and the Kosdaq advanced 0.9%.
The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia was up 0.78%.
Singapore’s United Overseas Bank reported net profit of 1.1 billion Singapore dollars ($797 million) for the second quarter, up 11% from a year ago.
“Net interest income grew 18% year on year led by strong margin improvement and healthy loan growth,'” the company said in a statement.
UOB’s shares fell 0.32%, compared with a 0.55% rise on the Straits Times index.
Thailand’s market is closed for a holiday Friday.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan gained 0.28%.
Greater China markets
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.34%. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite was fractionally lower and the Shenzhen Component dipped 0.26%.
Chinese leaders on Thursday signaled Beijing is unlikely to try to boost the economy, and downplayed the country’s GDP target of “around 5.5%.”
“This hints that the government is not going to overly spend on infrastructure projects to achieve that target. Our view is that this is not such a bad thing,” ING said in a Friday note.
“This would give more room for the central government to solve the problem of uncompleted construction projects,” the authors added.
Additionally, Beijing seems committed to its zero-Covid policy.
“It appears to us that any change in the zero-Covid policy will only happen when authorities are convinced that mutations are less virulent and vaccines/medicines are proven to be more effective,” wrote ANZ Research’s Betty Wang, a senior China economist, and Zhaopeng Xing, a senior China strategist.
U.S. moves
Major U.S. indexes rallied at least 1% each overnight.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 332.04 points, or 1%, to 32,529.63. The S&P 500 rose 1.2% to 4,072.43, and the Nasdaq Composite added nearly 1.1% to 12,162.59.
U.S. futures rose further after tech companies like Apple and Amazon reported strong earnings.
Those moves came despite the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reporting GDP fell 0.9% at an annualized pace for the April-to-June quarter, according to the advance estimate. GDP slipped 1.6% in the first quarter of the year.
While that is the second-straight negative GDP report, official declarations on whether the U.S. is in a recession come from the National Bureau of Economic Research. That determination could take months or even longer.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 106.153.
The Japanese yen traded at 134.51 per dollar, strengthening from earlier in the week. The Australian dollar is trying to reach the $0.7 level and was last at $0.6995.
Oil futures gained. U.S. crude was up 1.27% at $97.64 per barrel, while Brent crude was 0.83% higher at $108.03 per barrel.
