Tokyo/Sydney — Asian stocks pared early gains on Friday as caution crept in ahead of the US earnings season and as investors weighed the possible effect on global growth from a tariff spat between the US and China. Investors were also left digesting mixed data from China that showed March exports unexpectedly fell 2.7% from a year earlier while imports grew more than forecast. That left the country with a rare trade deficit of $4.98bn for the month, the first since last February. China is the world’s biggest net crude oil consumer and top buyer of copper, coal, iron ore and soy. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up a slim 0.07%, having risen as much as 0.5% in morning trading. It is still up about 2% on the week. Chinese shares took a small knock, with both the blue-chip CSI300 index and Shanghai’s SSE Composite off 0.4%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index eased 0.1% while Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.5%. Meanwhile, futures pointed to a weak start for US shares with...
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