EQUITIES
Stocks in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Friday trade, with shares in Hong Kong leading losses among the region’s major markets.
The Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.87% in trade, paring some losses of more than 1% drop earlier. The Shanghai composite was down 0.24%, the South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.61%, and Japanese Nikkei 225 slipped 0.66%.
Elsewhere, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia gained 0.46%, the S&P BSE Sensex in India added 0.49%, and the Singapore’s Straits Times index rose 0.66%.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq extended their streaks of record high closes to six sessions, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a slim loss, ending a string of record closes, weighed BY bank shares. The S&P 500 climbed 0.42% to 4,680.06, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.81% to 15,940.31, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged 33.35 points to 36,124.23.
OIL
Oil prices rebounded on Friday, staging a partial recovery after OPEC+ rebuffed a U.S. call to raise supply and instead stick to their plan for a gradual return of output halted by the pandemic.
OPEC and its oil-producing allies have maintained plans to continue with their current output plan, deciding against loosening the taps in the face of multiyear highs in crude prices and U.S. pressure to help cool the market. The group, known as OPEC+, will rollover its August program to gradually increase oil production by 400,000 barrels per day each month.
The Brent now traded at $81.32 per barrel, and U.S. crude futures traded at $79.64 per barrel.
Brent is on track for a nearly 4% decline this week, the second straight week the contract has fallen. U.S. oil is heading for a decline this week of nearly 5%.
The Brent crude falling almost 2% on Thursday, to end at $80.54 a barrel, while the U.S. oil declined 2.5%, to $78.81 per barrel. The prices hit month lows overnight, following a report that Saudi Arabia's oil output will soon surpass 10 million bpd for the first time since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
CURRENCIES
The U.S. benchmark 10-year yields dropped to 1.509% their lowest level since mid-October on Thursday but regained some ground and were last at 1.540% on Friday.
The dollar index last stood at 94.349, within sight of October's 12-month highs.
GOLD
Gold prices advanced on Friday and were headed for a weekly gain, as bullion drew support from the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to rushing to raise interest rates.
Spot gold was up 0.11% at $1,793.70 per ounce and set to mark its second weekly climb in three with a gain of 0.7%, while the U.S. gold futures was flat at $1,794.50.
Spot silver slipped 0.07% to $23.89 per ounce. Platinum gained 0.28% to $1,032.20, and palladium climbed 1.63% to $2,029.00.
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
Equities markets were mixed on Friday, failed to latch on to overnight Nasdaq performance as investors mulled the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to begin tapering asset purchases later this month.
Chinese markets dragged on Asian shares after trading in shares of Chinese developer Kaisa Group and several of its units was suspended on Friday, according, a day after the company said a subsidiary had missed a payment on a wealth management product, the latest sign of a deepening liquidity crisis in the Chinese property sector. Kaisa is the second-largest issuer of U.S. dollar-denominated offshore high-yield bonds among Chinese developers, after Evergrande.
Other shares of Chinese property developers in Hong Kong fell. China Evergrande Group slipped 2.54%, China Vanke dropped 1.11% and Sunac China Holdings plunged almost 6%. The Hang Seng Properties index traded 0.13% lower.
The U.S. Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday it would not rush to raise interest rates but approved plans to start unwinding its stimulus programme. The central bank will begin paring its monthly bond purchases by $15 billion a week from this month with plans to end them in 2022, but stuck to its long-held view that high inflation would prove "transitory" and likely not require a fast rise in interest rates, prompting investors to call it a "dovish taper."
The Bank of England kept interest rates on hold on Thursday, dashed investors' expectations who had been convinced that it would be the first of the world's big central banks to raise borrowing costs after the COVID-19 pandemic.
