Asian shares set to end strong week on less buoyant note

Sydney — Asian stocks were ending a strong week on a softer note on Friday as the euphoria over US-China trade talks faded, while revived bets for policy easing in the US sparked a rally in beaten-down bond markets.

Oil prices steadied after plunging more than 2% overnight on news of a potential US-Iran nuclear deal, but they are still up 1% for the week as the global economic outlook brightened.

In Asia, shares of Alibaba slumped 6.8% after the tech giant’s quarterly revenue failed to impress investors. Their US-listed shares slumped 7.6% overnight.

It has been a strong week for global share markets as investors cheered the trade war truce between the US and China, which has greatly lessened the chance of a global recession. However, there are signs for caution heading into the weekend.

Investors went back to selling the US dollar against the safe-haven currencies on Friday, with the dollar down 0.4% on the Japanese yen and slipping 0.3% on the Swiss franc.

“The markets confront a weekend with less risk of carrying open positions than last, with no major trade talks or significant risks on the calendar,” said Kyle Rodda, senior analyst at Capital.com

“However, there is always a slight risk-off bias going into the weekend during a Trump presidency, with a nasty downside surprise at the Monday open only ever one social media post away.”

The MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.1% to 613.4 on Friday but it is still set for a weekly rise of over 3%. Goldman Sachs raised its 12-month target for the Asian index to 660, from 620 before.

Chinese blue chips eased 0.2% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.6%.

Japan's Nikkei fell 0.4% after data showed its economy shrank for the first time in a year in the March quarter, underscoring the fragile nature of its recovery now under threat from US trade policies.

Nasdaq futures and S&P 500 futures were both down 0.1% after Wall Street ended the day mixed. US retail sales were soft and the producer prices fell unexpectedly in April, as markets added to the bets for a total easing of 56 basis points from the Federal Reserve this year.

That helped Treasuries rally after a brutal week. The benchmark ten-year yields fell three basis points (bps) to 4.424% on Friday, having already dropped 7 bps overnight to move away from its one-month top.

For the week, they are still up 8 bps.

The two-year yields were also down 2 bps to 3.947%, having fallen 8 bps overnight.

Fed chair Jerome Powell said on Thursday that policymakers felt they need to reconsider the key elements around both jobs and inflation in their current approach to monetary policy.

In commodities markets, oil prices steadied. US crude futures bounced 0.1% to $61.71 a barrel while Brent was at $64.61 per barrel, also 0.1% higher on the day.

In precious metals, gold prices fell 0.5% to $3,223/oz, after rallying 2% overnight. For the week, they are down 3%.

Reuters