TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks inched on Friday following a tech-led rise on Wall Street, although the latest exchange of trade threats between Beijing and Washington capped gains and drove safehaven flows to the dollar, which hovered near a two-week high.
FILE PHOTO: Employees of a foreign exchange trading company work near monitors broadcasting TV news reporting from the summit between the U.S. and North Korea (R) and the Japanese yen's exchange rate against the U.S. dollar and Nikkei share average in Tokyo, Japan, June 12, 2018. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo
Investors also remain cautious ahead of the July U.S. jobs report due later on Friday, which will give a reading on the health of the world’s largest economy and possible clues about the pace of Federal Reserve interest rate rises.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.05 percent. The index was down more than 0.6 percent for the week on U.S.-China trade tensions.
The trade war between the world’s top two economies intensified midweek after U.S. President Donald Trump raised pressure on China by proposing a higher 25 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.
“The equity markets now have time to regroup and settle down after yesterday’s slide. But the U.S.-China trade conflict involves the epicenter of the region and this will continue to weigh psychologically on Asian equities,” said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management in Tokyo.
The Shanghai Composite Index swerved in and out of the red in early trade, and was last up 0.1 percent, after dropping 2 percent the previous day.
Japan’s Nikkei added 0.25 percent and South Korea’s KOSPI was 0.45 percent higher. Tech-heavy Taiwan stocks outperformed thanks to the gains on Wall Street, rising 0.7 percent.
