Aerial view of Osaka Skyline
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Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose Friday, tracking Wall Street’s gains after White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt downplayed the impending start of the tariff deals, which have weighed on investor sentiment.
July 8 is when the so-called liberation day tariffs are set to take effect after a 90-day pause, and July 9 is the deadline for an EU deal to avoid 50% tariffs.
“The deadline is not critical,” said Leavitt. “Perhaps it could be extended, but that’s a decision for the president to make.”
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 climbed 1.59% to a six-month high and crossed the 40,000 mark for the first time since Jan. 7, while the broader Topix index advanced 1.3%.
The country’s capital city of Tokyo saw core consumer price index excluding fresh food and fuel rise 3.1% year on year in June, slower than the 3.6% increase seen in the previous month, and the 3.3% gain penciled by economists polled by Reuters.
In South Korea, the Kospi index fell 0.76%, while the small-cap Kosdaq dropped by 0.57%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.1%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 index increased by 0.31% after data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the country’s industrial profits fell 9.1% year on year in the first five months of the year.
Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 benchmark was flat.
U.S. stock futures were near the flatline in early Asian hours as investors awaited the release of several data points, including inflation, personal income, consumer spending and consumer sentiment.
Overnight stateside, the S&P 500 rose to within a whisker of a new record high, as the broad market index overcame a slew of macroeconomic challenges including tariff wars, geopolitical tensions and sticky inflation.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% to close at 6,141.02, bringing its gain on the week to 2.9% and putting it just a few points away from its intraday all-time high of 6,147.43 in late February.
The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.97% to 20,167.91, also inches away from a new record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 404.41 points, or 0.94%, to 43,386.84.
— CNBC’s Brian Evans and Sean Conlon contributed to this report.
