Asian shares trimmed most of its sharp early gains on Friday but benchmarks in Shanghai and Hong Kong jumped amid uncertainty over the potential outcome of trade talks between China and the US.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.2 per cent to 21,377.72. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.1 per cent to 6,293.30. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.3 per cent to 2,108.04.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.9 per cent to 28,543.86, while the Shanghai Composite gained 1.5 per cent to 2,898.34 after briefly trading 2.0 per cent higher, reports AP.
The S&P 500 fell 0.3per cent to 2,870.72. The benchmark index has essentially given back all its April gains, though it’s still up 14.5 per cent for the year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.5 per cent to 25,828.36. It was down nearly 450 points in morning trading before regaining much of the ground it lost.
The Nasdaq composite slid 0.4 per cent, to 7,910.59. The Russell 2000 index of small company stocks gave up 0.3 per cent, to 1,570.06.
Benchmark US crude rose 44 cents to $62.14 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It dropped 0.7 per cent to settle at $61.70 per barrel overnight.
Brent crude, the international standard, added 34 cents to $70.72 a barrel.
The dollar inched up to 109.88 Japanese yen from 109.77 yen. The euro strengthened to $1.1230 from $1.1216.