Singapore — Asian stocks and the dollar edged up on Thursday, shaking off the risk aversion that gripped financial markets overnight after President Donald Trump threatened to shut down the US government and end the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta). MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.4%. Japan’s Nikkei pulled back 0.1%, with steel makers slumping after the Nikkei business daily reported that Toyota Motor was looking to cut the price of steel supplied to component makers in the October-March period. That is the result of lower rates already agreed for the six months to end-September with steel makers such as Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corporation. Four of the five biggest decliners on the index were steel makers. Chinese stocks were down about 0.3% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 0.45%. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.4% and Australian stocks gained 0.25%. Overnight, US stock indices closed between 0.3% and 0.4% lower. Trump said at a Tue...
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