Singapore — Asian stocks edged higher on Thursday as tension between the US and North Korea came off the boil, while the Federal Reserve’s concerns about weak US inflation weighed on the dollar. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.5%. Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.1%, weighed down by a stronger yen as the dollar wilted and shrugging off data showing the country’s exports rose for an eighth consecutive month in July. Australian shares gained 0.1% and the Australian dollar inched up 0.1% to $0.7931 after the country added 27,900 jobs in July, beating expectations for an increase of 20,000. The unemployment rate remained at 5.6%, as expected, although full-time employment fell by 20,300. South Korean shares advanced 0.5% after the leaders of both North Korea and the US appeared to back off from their heated rhetoric from last week. Trump on Wednesday praised North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a "wise" decision not to fire missiles towards the US Pacific terri...
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