In Asian Equity Markets stocks declined on Friday, with steel producers and automaker names recording steep declines. The fall in regional markets tracked sharp losses on Wall Street following a tariff announcement from U.S. President Donald Trump. Nikkei 225 fell 479.33 points, or 2.18 percent. JFE Holdingsdeclined 2.86 percent, Nisshin Steel lost 2.34 percent and Kobe Steellost 2.68 percent. Automakers, which make use of steel and aluminum products, also tracked losses seen stateside. Honda Motor and Toyota Motor fell 3.29 percent and 2.05 percent, respectively. Other sectors, including technology, were also firmly lower. Sony lost 1.11 percent and SoftBank Group fell 3.14 percent. Kospi declined 0.86 percent, with technology and manufacturing stocks mostly trading lower. Index heavyweight Samsung Electronics fell 1.7 percent.

 

In Currency Markets the dollar fell on Friday, having pulled sharply back from six-week highs after U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium took the wind out of the greenback’s week-long recovery. The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies fell 0.15 percent to 90.185. The index had already shed 0.4 percent overnight, peeled away from a high of 90.932 – its strongest since Jan. 19 – after Trump announced on Thursday he would impose steep tariffs on imported steel and aluminium. The euro inched up 0.1 percent to $1.2276 after rising 0.6 percent overnight. The pound was effectively flat at $1.3780 after bouncing overnight from a near two-month low of $1.3712. The Australian dollar was steady at $0.7759 and off the two-month low of $0.7713 set on Thursday on lacklustre domestic business investment data.

 

In Commodities Markets oil fell more than 1 percent on Thursday, touching two-week lows under pressure from a retreating stock market and worries about surging U.S. crude output. Brent, the global benchmark, settled at $63.83 a barrel, down 90 cents, or 1.4 percent. U.S. crude settled down 65 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $60.99 a barrel, after touching a low of $60.18. The session lows for both benchmarks were the lowest in two weeks. On Wednesday, weekly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed a larger-than-expected increase in U.S. crude inventories and a rise in gasoline stocks. U.S. crude output slipped in the last month of 2017, but in November hit an all-time high of 10.057 million barrels per day (bpd). Weekly data showed another record and further gains are expected.

 

In US Equity Markets the Dow and S&P 500 registered a third straight day of more than 1 percent declines on Thursday after President Donald Trump said the United States would impose import tariffs on steel and aluminum. Shares of auto makers and other big consumers of steel and aluminum added to their session losses after Trump said the United States would impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on imported aluminum next week, while shares of U.S. steel and aluminum companies jumped. General Motors Co shares lost 4 percent, while Ford Motor Co was down 3.0 percent. U.S. Steel shares rose 5.7 percent. The S&P 500 lost 1.33 percent, to 2,677.67 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.27 percent, to 7,180.56.

 

In Bond Markets Japanese government bond prices rose across the board on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium unnerved the global equity market and enhanced demand for safe havens. The five-year JGB yield fell half a basis point to minus 0.120 percent, the 10-year yield declined half a basis point to 0.045 percent and the 30-year yield dropped 1 basis point to 0.740 percent. Bonds were also supported as the Bank of Japan conducted a regular debt buying operation on Friday. The central bank offered to purchase 1.03 trillion yen ($9.71 billion) of one- to 10-year JGBs.

 

 

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