Asia-Pacific markets fall after Trump modifies tariff rates

U.S. President Donald Trump's revised duties on Asian territories were "expected," Lorraine Tan, director of equity research at Morningstar said, adding that they were unlikely to impact markets.

"The fact that the larger export countries such as Korea and Japan are at 15% and the SE Asian countries are at 19% is a fairly reasonable outcome especially after the initial April 2 shock," she wrote in a Friday note.

Negotiations between the U.S. and China are now in focus, Tan said.

"We think the new 90-day extension between China and US may be viewed as headwind by investors given that a framework seemed to be already in place for the last 3 months amid multiple rounds of negotiations," Morningstar's Asia equity market strategist Kai Wang said in the same Friday note.

"The extension is signaling that there may be some snags in talks which have the potential to fall apart entirely given that Trump is still indirectly targeting China through transshipping and other loopholes," Wang said, adding that the performance of the Hang Seng Index and the CSI 300 index in the last two days largely supported this thesis.

— Amala Balakrishner

Indian stocks fell in early trade Friday.

The benchmark Nifty 50 was down 0.35%, while the BSE Sensex index fell 0.34% as of 9:30 a.m. Indian Standard time (12 a.m. ET).

— Amala Balakrishner

Asia-Pacific tech giants mostly fell Friday as investors digested the Big Tech earnings on Wall Street overnight, as well as U.S. President Donald Trump's fresh duties on several countries.

In Japan, Tokyo Electron plunged 17% as of 11 a.m. Singapore time (11 p.m. ET Thursday), leading losses among the country's tech names.

Lasertec had lost 4.67%, while Advantest Corp declined 2.51% and SoftBank Group fell 2.07%. Meanwhile, Renesas Electronics was last seen up 0.7%.

Over in South Korea, SK Hynix had plunged 5.12%, while Samsung Electronics was down 1.92%.

Taiwan's TSMC declined by 1.72%, while Hon Hai Precision Industry — known globally as Foxconn — increased by 1.12%.

Over in Hong Kong, the tech-heavy Hang Seng Tech index was down 0.23% in choppy trade.

Among the worst performers were China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, which dropped by 5%, Zhongsheng Group Holdings, which lost 3.02% and Li Auto which declined by 2.6%, according to LSEG data.

— Amala Balakrishner

Asia-Pacific currencies mostly depreciated against the greenback on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump modified tariff rates on several countries.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, rose 0.11% to 100.73 as of 10:40 a.m. Singapore time (10:40 p.m. ET Thursday).

The Japanese yen, which is traditionally viewed as a safe asset during times of tumult, was flat against the dollar at 150.75.

The Australian dollar was similarly largely unchanged against the greenback at 0.6427.

Meanwhile, China's offshore yuan weakened by 0.11% against the dollar to 7.2083, after dropping to a near two-month low earlier in the session.

The Taiwanese dollar depreciated by 0.35% against the greenback to 30.01, as did the South Korean won which weakened by 0.53% to 1,399.50, its first time below the 1,400 mark in nearly three months.

Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, the Singapore dollar was largely unchanged against the greenback at 1.284, while the Thai baht weakened by 0.24% to 32.81.

The Philippine peso weakened by 0.49% to 58.494, while the Malaysian ringgit depreciated by 0.42% to 4.278.

— Amala Balakrishner

China's factory activity deteriorated in July as new business growth softened after manufacturers scaled back production due to uncertainties in the U.S.' tariffs on Chinese exports, a private sector survey released Friday showed.

The Caixin/S&P Global services purchasing managers' index fell to 49.5 in July from 50.4 in the month before.

The metric fell below the 50-mark which separates an expansion from contraction and missed the 50.4 reading expected by analysts polled by Reuters.

S&P Global Market Intelligence's Economics Associate Director Jingyi Pan noted that "manufacturing production fell for only the second time since October 2023."

"While successful business development efforts within the domestic market were able to sustain higher new work inflows, overall sales growth was only fractional as demand from overseas remained subdued on the back of global trade uncertainty," she noted.

Pan added that companies had also cut their selling prices amid rising input costs.

— Amala Balakrishner

Stocks in Mainland China started the day lower Friday, amid declines in the other key Asia-Pacific markets.

The mainland's CSI 300 was flat as of 10:02 a.m. local time (10:02 p.m. ET Thursday).

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index moved down 0.16%.

— Amala Balakrishner

South Korean stocks extended their decline for the second consecutive session on Friday, amid declines across Asia-Pacific markets as investors digested U.S. President Donald Trump's latest tariffs.

As of 9:40 a.m. local time (8:40 p.m. ET Thursday), the Kospi index had plunged 2.3%.

Meanwhile, the small-cap Kosdaq index was last seen trading 2.8% lower.

Declines were broad-based across the technology, manufacturing, retail, financial and gaming sectors.

Among the index heavyweights, Samsung Electronics was last seen down 0.56%, while SK Hynix declined by 4.57%.

— Amala Balakrishner

Japan's unemployment rate was unchanged at 2.5% in June, from the previous month, government data released Friday showed. This reading was in line with forecasts of economists polled by Reuters.

Meanwhile, there were 122 job openings for every 100 job seekers in June, lower than the 124 openings for every 100 job seekers in the previous month. This fell short of the 125 openings in Reuters' median forecast.

Japan has experienced a tight labor market for over a decade, with the situation becoming more pronounced in recent years due to demographic challenges.

— Amala Balakrishner

Asia-Pacific markets started the day lower Friday.

Japan's Nikkei 225 benchmark fell 0.65%, while the broader Topix index was flat as of 8:15 a.m. Singapore time (8:15 p.m. ET Thursday).

In South Korea, the Kospi index dropped 1.73%, while the small-cap Kosdaq declined by 2.1%.

Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 benchmark fell 0.94%.

— Amala Balakrishner

— Amala Balakrishner

Good morning from Singapore and happy Friday.

Investors are assessing the U.S.'s latest tariff developments. They will also be keeping a watch on Japan's jobs data for June and manufacturing data points for July from several countries in the region.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 was set to open lower, with the futures contract in Chicago at 40,785, while its counterpart in Osaka last traded at 40,760, against the index's Thursday close of 41,069.82.

Futures for Hong Kong's Hang Seng index stood at 24,708 pointing to a weaker open compared with the HSI's last close of 24,773.33.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was set to start the day lower with futures tied to the benchmark at 8,632, compared with its last close of 8,742.80.

— Amala Balakrishner

U.S. equity futures fell in early Asia hours Friday as investors digested the Big Tech earnings overnight and awaited the July jobs report.

Futures tied to the broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.19%, while Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.3% as of 7:58 a.m. Singapore time (7:58 p.m. Thursday ET). Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were flat.

— Amala Balakrishner

Stocks closed lower on Thursday, with the S&P 500 posting its third consecutive losing session.

The broad market index slipped 0.37% to close at 6,339.39, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.03% to 21,122.45. The Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back 330.30 points, or 0.74%, to finish the session at 44,130.98.

— Brian Evans