Tokyo — Market sentiment was a little shaky on Friday, with Asian shares on the defensive after US President Donald Trump scrapped a key summit with North Korea, though investors’ fears were calmed by Pyongyang’s measured response to the cancellation. North Korean Vice-Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said Pyongyang still hoped for a "Trump formula" to resolve the standoff over its nuclear weapons programme, noting that North Korea was open to resolving issues with the US. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was almost flat, while South Korea’s Kospi pared much of its earlier loss of 0.9%. Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.1%. On Wall Street the S&P 500 ended 0.2% lower on Thursday, though it clawed back a large part of its earlier loss of 0.95%. Even before the reaction from Pyongyang, there were no immediate signs of widespread investor panic, with Wall Street’s volatility index, seen as a gauge of investors’ fear, ending at a four-month low on Thursday. Analysts said th...
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