Futures for Australia were fractionally higher, a gauge of US-listed Chinese stocks fell and contracts for Japan showed a small gain in trading that ended before an interview by BOJ’s Kazuo Ueda reached the market. Hong Kong reopens after a closure Friday due to a heavy rainstorm.
The dollar edged lower against other Group-of-10 counterparts after its recent rally drove the currency to a record streak of weekly gains. The greenback has been bolstered recently by bets the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates higher for longer as the US defies a global economic gloom. Fed Bank of New York President John Williams said late Thursday US monetary policy is “in a good place,” but officials will need to parse through data to decide on how to proceed on interest rates. His Dallas counterpart Lorie Logan noted that skipping an interest-rate hike at the central bank’s upcoming policy meeting may be appropriate, while also signaling rates may have to rise further to get inflation back to 2%.