People commuting to work in the morning cross a pedestrian crossing in Tokyo on February 15, 2024.
Kazuhiro Nogi | AFP | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were largely lower on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 paring gains after crossing the 41,000 mark and hitting fresh record highs.
The Nikkei saw a volatile session and was last down 0.29%. The broad-based Topix also faltered from record highs to drop 0.59%.
Japan’s household spending for May unexpectedly dipped 1.8% in real terms compared to the same period last year. Economists polled by Reuters had estimated a 0.1% rise.
Household spending data is a key metric for the Bank of Japan’s to assess its goal of realizing a “virtuous cycle” of rising wages and prices.
Average spending per household in May was 290,328 yen ($1,799.28), while average monthly income stood at 500,231 yen, up 6.4% in nominal terms and 3% higher in real terms from the previous year.
Investors will also be assessing retail sales numbers out from Singapore later today.
South Korea’s Kospi was 1.38% higher, and the small-cap Kosdaq rose 0.91%. The benchmarks are the only major indexes in positive territory in Asia.
Heavyweight Samsung Electronics on Friday estimated that its second quarter operating profit will surge almost 15-fold, mainly due to a rebound in semiconductor prices on the back of the artificial intelligence boom.
Samsung shares climbed 2.25%, hitting their highest level since January 2021.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index dropped 1.09%, while mainland China’s CSI300 was down 0.96%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.18%.
Overnight in the U.S., markets were closed for the Independence Day holiday, but futures were little changed ahead of Friday’s trading session.
Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.1%, while S&P 500 futures were trading marginally below the flatline. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were 0.05% up.
