Asian Markets Mixed Amid Cautious Trades

(RTTNews) - Asian stock markets are trading mixed on Friday, following the broadly negative from Wall Street overnight, as traders remain cautious and concerned about US President Donald Trump's shifting tariff policies and escalating global trade tensions that are fuelling concerns about economic growth. Some traders also are cashing in on Wednesday's strong gains. Asian markets ended mostly higher on Thursday.

The Australian stock market is sharply lower on Friday, adding to the losses in the previous three sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling well below the psychological 8,000 mark, with weakness across most sectors led by financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 122.40 points or 1.51 percent to 7,972.30, after hitting a low of 7,963.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 122.30 points or 1.47 percent to 8,204.10. Australian stocks closed notably lower on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Fortescue Metals are declining almost 1 percent each, while Rio Tinto is edging down 0.1 percent and Mineral Resources is slipping almost 3 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Origin Energy is down almost 1 percent and Beach energy is edging down 0.4 percent, while Woodside Energy and Santos are losing more than 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is losing 1.5 percent, Xero is declining more than 3 percent, Zip is slipping more than 6 percent and WiseTech Global is down 2.5 percent, while Appen is gaining almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is declining more than 3 percent and National Australia Bank is down more than 1 percent, Westpac and ANZ Banking are slipping more than 2 percent each. Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining is losing more than 2 percent, Resolute Mining is declining almost 2 percent and Newmont is edging down 0.1 percent, while Northern Star Resources and Gold Road Resources are slipping almost 1 percent each.

In other news, shares in Insignia Financial are jumping more than 10 percent after private equity houses Bain and CC Capital sweetened their bids for the wealth manager to $5 a share, valuing it at around $3.4 billion.

Star Entertainment is still in a trading halt, but confirmed talks to sell Brisbane casino.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.632 on Friday.

Giving up the gains in the previous two sessions, the Japanese market is sharply lower on Friday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling to be just above the 37,000 mark, with weakness across most sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 37,008.43, down 696.50 points or 1.85 percent, after hitting a low of 36,857.13 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher on Thursday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is also down more than 3 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing almost 2 percent and Honda is down more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is losing more than 2 percent, Tokyo Electron is declining almost 3 percent and Screen Holdings is down almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are losing almost 2 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining more than 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony is losing more than 5 percent, Panasonic is down almost 1 percent and Canon is declining more than 3 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is gaining more than 2 percent.

Among other major losers, Nintendo is tumbling more than 7 percent and Chugai Pharmaceutical is slipping more than 5 percent, while Terumo and Fujikura are losing almost 5 percent each. Sapporo Holdings is down more than 4 percent, while Hitachi, Trend Micro, Konami Group and Furukawa Electric are declining almost 4 percent each. Olympus and Mitsui Fudosan are down more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, West Japan Railway and Kubota are gaining almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid-147 yen-range on Friday.

Elsewhere in Asia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia are higher by between 0.1 and 0.6 percent each, while South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan are lower by between 0.3 and 0.6 percent each.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a substantial move back to the downside during trading on Thursday after recovering from early weakness to end the previous session sharply higher. With the steep drops on the day, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 tumbled to five and four-month closing lows, respectively.

The major averages moved roughly sideways going into the close, lingering near their worst levels of the day. The Nasdaq plummeted 483.48 points or 2.6 percent to 18,069.26, the S&P 500 plunged 104.11 points or 1.8 percent at 5,738.52 and the Dow slumped 427.51 points or 1.0 percent to 42,579.08.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slid by 0.8 percent, the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent and the German DAX Index shot up by 1.5 percent.

Crude oil prices settled slightly higher on Thursday after some wild swings amid uncertainty about the outlook for oil demand, and on possible excess supply in the market. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April settled at $66.36 a barrel, up $0.05 percent from previous close.