Asia markets were lower in morning trade on Friday as Wall Street ended its four-day winning streak in the last session, following a report that U.S. President Donald Trump voiced his support for moving forward with more proposed tariffs.
The Nikkei 225 was down by 0.77 percent in early trade as most sectors slipped. South Korea’s Kospi was lower by 0.47 percent as industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics fell by around 1 percent.
Down Under, the ASX 200 shed 0.13 percent, with the telecommunications sector declining by 2.63 percent, giving up gains from a day earlier which were led by a proposed merger between TPG Telecom and Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia).
On Thursday, Wall Street ended a four-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 137.65 points to 25,986.92. The S&P 500 declined by 0.4 percent to 2,901.13 while the Nasdaq Composite slid by 0.3 percent to 8,088.36 after reaching a record high a day earlier.
The moves stateside came after a Bloomberg News report that Trump said to his aides that he supports going ahead with the imposition of proposed tariffs on an additional $200 billion in Chinese goods. The report did, however, also mention that Trump has not made up his mind on the matter. The White House declined to comment on the report.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies, was at 94.714 as of 8:07 a.m. HK/SIN.
The Japanese yen was largely flat against the dollar at 110.95 while the Australian dollar was at $0.7258 as of 8:08 a.m. HK/SIN.
Oil prices pared some of their gains in Asia’s early trade after rising to their highest in more than a month on Thursday. Global benchmark Brent crude oil slid 0.32 percent at $77.52 a barrel while U.S. crude was 0.28 percent down at $70.05 a barrel.
Here’s a look at the day ahead:
- China – Official PMI for August at 9:00 a.m. HK/SIN
- South Korea – Bank of Korea’s interest rate decision at 9:00 a.m. HK/SIN
– CNBC’s Fred Imbert and Reuters contributed to this report.
