Stocks in Asia were set to trade lower on Friday. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a record close on Wall Street.
Futures pointed to a lower open for shares in Japan, with the Nikkei futures contract in Chicago at 21,595, as compared to the Nikkei 225’s last close at 21,643.53.
Stocks in Australia were also poised to slip, with the SPI futures contract at 6,628.0, as compared to the S&P/ASX 200’s last close at 6,716.10.
Investors will be looking out for the release of Chinese trade data for June to assess the impact of Beijing’s ongoing trade war with Washington.
Advance gross domestic product data for the second quarter in Singapore is also set to come out at 8:00 a.m. HK/SIN.
Asia-Pacific Market Indexes Chart
Overnight on Wall Street, the 30-stock Dow crossed the 27,000 for the first time in history, adding 227.88 points to close at 27,088.08. The S&P 500 also posted a record close, rising 0.2% to 2,999.91. The Nasdaq Composite, on the other hand, slipped 0.1% to finish its trading day stateside at 8,196.04.
The moves came amid rising expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would cut interest rates at its upcoming monetary policy meeting in July. Market expectations for a rate cut later this month are at 100%, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 97.050 after bouncing from levels below 96.9 yesterday.
The Japanese yen traded at 108.48 against the dollar after weakening from levels below 108.0 in the previous session, while the Australian dollar changed hands at $0.6973 after trading below $0.695 earlier in the week.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
