Major Asian markets edged lower on Friday, tracking losses seen on Wall Street amid investor concerns about the trade dispute between the U.S. and China.
Japan led losses in Asia in the morning. The benchmark Nikkei 225 slid 0.97 percent, with losses were seen across most sectors. Automakers were down 1.65 percent in the morning.
Declines in South Korea were less pronounced, with the Kospi shedding 0.43 percent.
Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was little changed in the morning. Heavily weighted financials rose, but that was offset by losses in the telecommunications and materials sectors.
Stocks stateside, meanwhile, closed lower in the last session, with trade tensions between Washington and Beijing continuing to weigh on investor sentiment. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.8 percent, or 196.10 points, to close at 24,461.70 and mark the index’s eighth straight day of losses.
Ahead, all eyes will be on OPEC and its allies as they meet in Vienna later on Friday. Markets are expecting the oil producers to ease production cuts that have been in place since 2017, with Reuters reporting early on Friday that Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said the consensus was for output to be increased by one million barrels per day.
Before the highly watched meeting, Brent crude futures rose 0.96 percent to trade at $73.75 per barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained 1.19 percent to trade at $66.32.
Also of note, the Bank of England on Thursday held rates steady, but the central bank was seen as a touch more hawkish after one more committee member, BOE Chief Economist Andy Haldane, voted for a rate hike.
The British pound on Friday held onto its overnight gains, last trading at $1.3250 at 8:07 a.m. HK/SIN after touching a recent seven-month low.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies, traded at 94.857. Against the yen, the dollar traded at 109.92.
In corporate news, Samsung Securities fell 4.48 percent after South Korea’s financial regulator proposed late on Thursday that some of company’s operations be suspended for six months following a “fat finger” error that took place earlier this year.
