Asia-Pacific markets traded higher Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday formalizing a lower Japanese auto import tariff of 15%, down from 27.5%.
The order also confirmed the agreement for $550 billion of Japanese investments in U.S. projects.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.03% to close at 43,018.75, and the Topix added 0.82% to end the trading day at 3,105.31 after the country’s July household spending rose 1.4% year over year.
South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.13% to end the trading day at 3,205.12, while the Kosdaq jumped 0.74% to close at 811.4.
Several Asian chip stocks jumped after Trump said Thursday stateside that his administration plans to slap tariffs on semiconductor imports from firms that do not move production to the United States. The comments came ahead of Trump’s dinner with top technology CEOs at the renovated Rose Garden.
Advantest gained 2.14%, while Lasertec popped over 4%. TSMC climbed 1.72%. Shares of South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix also rose 3.01%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.51% to close at 8,871.2.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 1.41%, while the mainland CSI 300 rose over 2% to 4,460.32.
Over in India, the benchmark Nifty 50 and the Sensex index were down 0.14% and 0.22% respectively, as of 1:39 p.m. local time (4:09 a.m. ET).
Malaysian and Indonesian markets were closed for a holiday.
| .AXJO | S&P/ASX 200 | ASX 200 | 8,871.20 | +44.70 | +0.51% |
| .HSI | Hang Seng Index | HSI | 25,417.98 | +359.47 | +1.43% |
| .KS11 | KOSPI Index | KOSPI | 3,205.12 | +4.29 | +0.13% |
| .N225 | Nikkei 225 Index | NIKKEI | 43,018.75 | +438.48 | +1.03% |
| .NSEI | NIFTY 50 | NIFTY 50 | 24,741.00 | +6.70 | +0.03% |
| .SSEC | Shanghai | SHANGHAI | 3,812.514 | +46.638 | +1.24% |
U.S. equity futures in early Asia hours were little changed ahead of the August jobs report due out Friday stateside.
Overnight stateside, all three key benchmarks rose on hopes of a favorable jobs report that supports a Federal Reserve rate cut chance.
The broad market S&P 500 finished up 0.83% at 6,502.08, while the Nasdaq Composite settled up 0.98% at 21,707.69. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 350.06 points, or 0.77%, at 45,621.29. It was the S&P 500′s 21st record close so far this year.
