Shares in Asia mostly traded higher on Friday afternoon, though Japanese stocks lagged behind the overall positive trend.
The mainland Chinese markets, closely watched in relation to the Sino-U.S. trade war, were mostly flat by the end of the morning session. The Shenzhen composite and the Shenzhen component were both largely flat while the Shanghai composite saw gains of 0.15 percent.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index saw fractional gains.
The ASX 200 in Australia gained about 0.5 percent, with the sectors mixed. The heavily weighted financial subindex rose 1.60 percent as shares of Australia’s so-called Big Four banks saw gains. Australia and New Zealand Banking Group climbed up by 1.86 percent, Commonwealth Bank of Australia rose 1.52 percent, Westpac gained 1.88 percent and National Australia Bank advanced 2.36 percent.
South Korea’s Kospi gained around 0.7 percent.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Topix index, however, both struggled for gains in afternoon trade as they slipped 0.37 percent and 0.36 percent, respectively, after two straight days of gains. Shares of Fast Retailing, the company behind the Uniqlo chain of apparel stores, lost their earlier gains to drop about 1.3 percent.
The moves in Japan came after the country’s central bank released its summary of opinions from its December monetary policy meeting, where it noted the “heightening” of downside risks to economic activity.
“Regarding the outlook for the global economy, risks have been tilted to the downside on the whole amid heightening uncertainties and a prevailing view that such situation will be protracted,” said the note from the Bank of Japan.
In overnight market action stateside, stocks rebounded from negative territory to ultimately add to their strong gains from Wednesday.
The Dow rose 260.37 points, or 1.1 percent, to close at 23,138.82. The S&P 500 advanced 0.86 percent to end the day at 2,488.83 while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.4 percent to close at 6,579.49.
At its lows of the day, the Dow had fallen 611 points. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell as much as 2.8 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively.
Futures also pointed to a slightly higher open for stocks stateside, during the afternoon of Asian trading hours on Friday.
Markets stateside were rocked earlier during their trading session on Thursday by renewed tensions between China and the United States. The ongoing fight between the two economic powerhouses has rattled global stock markets for much of 2018.
Reuters reported, citing three sources familiar with the situation, that U.S. President Donald Trump is considering an executive order to ban American companies from using telecommunications equipment made by China’s Huawei and ZTE.
The report comes amid efforts by officials from China and the U.S. to strike a permanent trade deal. Earlier in December, the two countries agreed to a 90-day grace period on implementing additional tariffs in order to come up with an agreement.
Following that development, the British newspaper The Times also reported that Britain’s defense minister said he has “grave, very deep concerns about Huawei providing the 5G network in Britain.“
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence confirmed Williamson’s comments to CNBC over the phone.
The next-generation 5G wireless standard is expected to be a significant leap over the current generation, enabling technologies such as the internet of things and autonomous vehicles through higher data transfer speeds and reduced communication time between devices. The U.S., China and even Finland are jostling for supremacy over the nascent technology.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 96.369 after seeing an earlier low of 96.317.
The Japanese yen, widely viewed as a safe-haven currency, traded at 110.59 against the greenback after touching lows around 111.3 yesterday. The Australian dollar was at $0.7047 after touching highs above $0.707 in the previous session.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert and Chloe Taylor contributed to this report.
