An aerial view of a container ship leaving the dockyard in Qingdao in east China’s Shandong province.
Future Publishing | Future Publishing | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly set to rebound Friday after an inflation-fueled selloff in the previous session, with investor awaiting a fresh batch of economic data from the region.
China’s trade numbers for March will be released later in the day, with exports forecast to fall 2.3% year on year by economists polled by Reuters. This follows a weaker-than-expected rise in the country’s inflation on Thursday.
Singapore will also announce its first-quarter gross domestic numbers, which could receive a boost due to the performances of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in March, a phenomenon dubbed as “Swiftonomics”.
The city-state’s central bank will also release its monetary policy decision on Friday. In contrast to other countries, Singapore uses exchange rate settings for its monetary policy, instead of a benchmark interest rate.
South Korea’s March unemployment rate rose to 2.8%, while investors awaited the Bank of Korea’s rate decision.
In Australia, futures for the S&P/ASX 200 point to a stronger open at 7,820 compared to its last close of 7,813.6.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 is also set for a rebound, with the futures contract in Chicago at 39,770 and its counterpart in Osaka at 39,700 against the index’s last close of 39,442.63.
However, futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 17,014, pointing to a weaker open compared to the HSI’s close of 17,095.03.
Overnight in the U.S., tech shares pulled both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite into positive territory, with both indexes gaining 0.74% and 1.68%, respectively.
On the other hand, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 2.43 points, or 0.01%.
Nvidia jumped 4.1%, while Amazon added 1.7% to hit an all-time high in the session, and Alphabet gained more than 2%.
Apple popped 4.3% after Bloomberg News reported that the company would transition its Mac product line to artificial intelligence-focused chips. The iPhone maker registered its best day since May 2023.
— CNBC’s Hakyung Kim and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.
Sumber: www.cnbc.com
