SHANGHAI - Asian shares turned lower on Friday as trepidation ahead of the start of the U.S. corporate earnings season and underlying anxiety over the global growth outlook eclipsed some reassuring U.S. economic data.
Despite broad weakness in the region, with Chinese blue-chips down 0.8 percent ahead of the release of trade data, higher Chinese iron ore prices helped to push Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index up 0.7 percent.Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets and Stockbroking in Sydney, said markets were in a “holding pattern” as they waited on Chinese trade data and the U.S. earnings season.
The tepid performance of Asian markets Friday followed a choppy session on Wall Street that left major indexes treading water, hemmed in by anxiety ahead of corporate earnings and worries about a global economic slowdown, which capped gains stemming from upbeat U.S. economic data. Comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida that the U.S. economy is in a “good place” but reemphasising the Fed’s patience on rate hikes, also helped to reassure investors.
Underscoring ongoing threats to the health of the global economy, IMF Deputy Managing Director Mitsuhiro Furusawa warned that a bigger-than-expected slowdown in China’s economy remains a key risk to global growth. In currency markets, the dollar was up 0.1 percent against the yen at 111.75, but a strong gain in the euro, which jumped 0.36 percent on the day to buy $1.1290, pushed the dollar index down 0.2 percent to 96.979.
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