Most Asian stocks went up a lot on Friday, making up for some of the losses they had earlier in the week. Investors are now looking to the upcoming U.S. payroll data for more information about the world’s largest economy.
As of 23:22 ET, Taiwanese stocks had gained the most among their peers. They were up 1.8%. (0322 GMT). Concerns about rising political tensions with China hurt the index a lot, and it is likely to end the week just a little bit lower.
On Friday, Chinese stocks went up a little bit. The blue-chip Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 added 0.3%. But tensions over Taiwan and slow manufacturing data made it likely that the benchmark would lose 1.4% for the week.
On Thursday, Asian stocks made a strong comeback from their weekly lows. This was because a number of strong U.S. earnings gave investors more hope about the future of corporations. Investors in the area are getting ready for a lot of earnings reports from Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean companies next week.
Later in the day, U.S. nonfarm payroll data is expected to give more information about the economy. The number is expected to have gone down from June to July, which shows that the job market is still tight. This is another reason why the Federal Reserve may decide to raise interest rates.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (HK:9988) shares fell 2.2% to 92.95 Hong Kong dollars (HK$), weighing on the Hang Seng index as a whole.This was because the company’s revenue was flat in the June quarter.
But the company did a little better than expected, which shows that the Chinese economy, which is Alibaba’s biggest market, is holding up.
Shares of a similar company, JD Com Inc (HK:9618), fell by 0.6%, while shares of tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK:0700) fell by 1.7%. Tencent will announce its earnings for the first half of the year on August 17.
After inflation rose more than expected in July to a rate of 6.4% per year, stocks in the Philippines fell by 0.2%. The number is likely to make the central bank raise interest rates again, which will hurt the stock market.
On the other hand, Thai stocks went up 0.1% after July inflation came in a little bit lower than expected.