A view of the night scenery in Shanghai, China
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Asia-Pacific markets appeared set to rebound on Friday, breaking ranks with Wall Street after U.S. Federal Reserve Jerome Powell said the central bank does not need to be “in a hurry to lower rates.”
Speaking in Dallas, Powell pointed out that strong U.S. economic growth will allow policymakers to take their time in deciding how far and how fast they should lower interest rates.
In Asia, investors will be assessing key economic data from Japan and China on Friday, with Japan set to release third-quarter GDP numbers.
China will announce October figures for retail sales, industrial output and the urban unemployment.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was set to climb, with the futures contract in Chicago at 38,870 and its counterpart in Osaka at 38,990 against the index’s last close of 38,535.7.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 19,464, also pointing to a positive open compared to the HSI’s close of 19,435.81.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 started the day up 0.3%.
Overnight in the U.S., all three indexes fell, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 0.47%.
The S&P 500 fell 0.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite pulled back 0.64%.
So-called “Trump trades” also lost steam as the market rally cooled. Tesla tumbled 5.8%, while the small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 dropped more than 1%, underperforming the major averages.
— CNBC’s Brian Evans and Sarah Min contributed to this report.
