Asian shares looked set to open lower on the last trading day of the week after stocks slipped as U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the Federal Reserve, while the dollar eased from a one-year high.
Futures tipped markets in Japan and Australia to open marginally lower. Nikkei futures traded in Chicago were off by 0.06 percent compared to the benchmark’s last close. Australian SPI futures were down 0.18 percent at Thursday’s close.
U.S. stocks slipped on Thursday as earnings season rolled on, with investors digesting comments from Trump on the Fed.
Trump told CNBC on Thursday that he was “not thrilled” with the central bank hiking interest rates. “Because we go up and every time you go up they want to raise rates again. I don’t really — I am not happy about it. But at the same time I’m letting them do what they feel is best,” he told CNBC’s Joe Kernen in an interview.
The White House later emphasized that the president did not mean to influence the central bank’s decision-making.
“Given his penchant for breaking with tradition, we are not surprised with the president’s comments … His comments are likely to add to financial market volatility, at least in the beginning,” Joseph Capurso, a currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a note.
CBA forecasts U.S. growth to slow from 2020 amid higher interest rates and fading fiscal stimulus, and expects more comments from Trump on interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.53 percent, or 134.79 points, to close at 25,064.50, the S&P 500 edged down by 0.4 percent to 2,804.49 and the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.37 percent to finish the session at 7,825.30.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of peers, last stood at 95.154, finishing the Thursday session slightly higher after earlier slipping from a one-year high of 95.652. The dollar stumbled against the yen, trading as 112.41 at 6:51 a.m. HK/SIN.
Here’s the economic calendar for Friday (all times in HK/SIN):
- 7:30 a.m.: Japan June inflation
- 12:00 p.m.: Thailand June trade data
