A HDR evening shot taken at sunset of the Tokyo skyline.
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Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell Friday, with a slowing U.S. economy, inflation fears and uncertainties from the judicial developments surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs weighing on investor sentiment.
The U.S. Court of International Trade ruled on Wednesday night that Trump had overstepped his authority when he imposed his “reciprocal” tariffs. The court ordered that the challenged tariff orders be vacated.
However, the Trump administration filed a notice of appeal shortly after the judgment, and an appeals court reinstated the levies on Thursday afternoon. The administration said it could ask the Supreme Court as early as Friday to pause the federal court’s original ruling if necessary.
Trade talks between the U.S. and China were also “a bit stalled,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News in an interview Thursday local time.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 declined 1.22% to end the day at 37,965.10, while the broader Topix index moved down 0.37% to 2,801.57 as investors parsed a slew of data releases.
Tokyo’s core inflation reading for April, which captures consumer costs excluding fresh food, climbed 3.6% from a year ago, its highest level since January 2023.
In South Korea, the Kospi index dropped 0.84% to close at 2,697.67 while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 0.26% to 734.35.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 index ended the day 0.48% lower at 3,840.23, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index retreated 1.2% to 23,289.77.
Meanwhile, India’s benchmark Nifty 50 pulled back 0.22% while the BSE Sensex inched down 0.3% as at 1.40 p.m. Indian Standard Time.
Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3% to end the day at 8,434.70.
U.S. futures also slipped as investors await more trade news and fresh inflation data. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back 22 points, or 0.05%. S&P 500 futures fell 0.07%, while Nasdaq-100 futures were last seen down 0.08%.
Overnight stateside, all three key benchmarks on Wall Street rose, even as gains were curtailed by caution around the court rulings on Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs.”
The S&P 500 moved up thanks to strong moves in chipmaker Nvidia. The broad-based index ended the day higher by 0.4% at 5,912.17 despite climbing as much as 0.9%.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.39% to 19,175.87, also well off its highest intraday gain of 1.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 117.03 points, or 0.28%, to finish at 42,215.73.
— CNBC’s Alex Harring and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
