•European stocks traded lower Friday morning as trade fears ratcheted up, amid the U.S. administration’s bid to blacklist Chinese telecoms giant Huawei and the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s newspaper striking a defiant tone.
The pan-European STOXX 600 dropped 0.6% after the opening bell, autos leading the losses with a fall of 1.6% in the early minutes of trading, while only travel and leisure and utilities stocks started the day in the black.
Stateside, investors will be monitoring the trade war between the world’s largest economies, as President Donald Trump’s bid to block Huawei from buying American technology ratcheted up tensions. Meanwhile, China’s ruling Communist Party’s newspaper struck a defiant tone Friday, insisting the trade war will only make China stronger.
•Asian shares suffered a fresh bout of the shakes on Friday as tough words on trade from China’s media drowned out upbeat news on the U.S. economy and corporate earnings.
Shanghai stocks led the way into the red amid the growing fallout from President Donald Trump’s move to block China’s Huawei Technologies from buying vital American technology.
The sense of foreboding grew as the Communist Party’s People’s Daily used a front page commentary to evoke the patriotic spirit of past wars, saying the trade war would never bring China down
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost early gains to fall 0.7%, leaving it at 15-week lows and down 2.6% for t
•Japan’s Nikkei share average jumped on Friday, led by Sony and technology shares, but ended the week with a slight loss amid concerns about rising U.S.-China trade tensions.
The Nikkei rose 0.89% to 21,251 points. For the week, it was down 0.44 percent, the second straight week of losses. The broader Topix rose 1.09% to 1,554.25, eking out weekly gain of 0.3%.
Sony jumped 9.9% after it announced a share buyback and strategic partnership with Microsoft Corp on areas such as streaming games, media and new image sensors.
•China’s stock market closed lower on Friday, clocking the fourth consecutive weekly loss, largely due to re-escalating trade tensions as Washington blacklisted Chinese tech company Huawei.
The Shanghai Composite index was down fell 2.5% to 2,882.30, losing 1.9% for the week. The blue-chip CSI300 index also lost 2.5% on Friday, accumulating weekly losses of 2.2%.
China’s state planner said on Friday trade frictions with the United States has had some impact on China’s economy, but it was “controllable” and countermeasures would be rolled out when needed to “keep economic operations within reasonable range”. *
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
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