EQUITIES

Asia-Pacific markets were higher on Friday trade. South Korea’s KOSPI added 0.95%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.57%, and Singapore’s FTSE Straits Times Index 0.08% higher.

The Shanghai Composite increased 0.17%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was just above the flatline.

The Nikkei index pared gains to 0.65% after climbing as much as 1.4% earlier in the session. The index fell after reports that Abe was shot during campaigning.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 1.12%, to close at 31,384.55. The S&P 500 gained 1.5% to 3,902.62, while the Nasdaq Composite added 2.28% to 11,621.35.

OIL

Oil prices rose on Friday after investors returned their focus to tight supply even as fears of a global recession persisted.

Brent crude futures rose 1.10%, to $105.26 a barrel, adding to a near 4% gains on Thursday. U.S. WTI crude added 0.45%, to $102.63 a barrel, having settled 4.2% higher a day earlier.

Both contracts, however, are set for their second straight weekly loss. Trade this week was marked by a sharp sell-off on Tuesday, when WTI slid 8% and Brent tumbled 9%. Brent's $10.73 drop was the third biggest for the contract since it started trading in 1988.

Data from U.S. EIA on Thursday showed that product supplied, the best proxy for U.S. consumer demand, rose to 20.5 million barrels per day in the most recent week. Overall gasoline and distillate demand over the past four weeks, however, was down a little more than 5% from the year-ago period.

U.S. crude inventories rose by 8.2 million barrels in the week to July 1, driven by an increase in inventories and as refiners cut output.

CURRENCIES

The euro's slide has vaulted the U.S. dollar index to a two-decade high of 107.270 this week and was last steady at 107.021 on Friday.

U.S. Treasury yields were flat gains in the previous two sessions, with the yield on benchmark 10-year notes at 2.976% and the two-year yield at 3.0182%.

Bitcoin is up nearly 15% this week, on course for its best week since early May. It was last at $21,784.

GOLD

Gold was marginally up on Friday as the US dollar clung to its 20-year peak, setting prices on course for their biggest weekly drop in eight by driving down demand for bullion.

Spot gold had inched up 0.16% at $1,742.50 per ounce, and U.S. gold futures were flat at $1,741.20.

Gold prices have lost about 3.8% this week. It is likely to be their fourth straight weekly fall, and worst since mid-May.

Spot silver dipped 0.3% to $19.28 per ounce and platinum firmed 0.1% to $874.50, with both were set for weekly losses. Palladium climbed 0.6% to $2,002.50 and has gained about 2% for the week.

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

Asian shares gains on Friday, are on course for a positive week as fears of an economic slowdown cooled. The stock markets have stabilized in July after a brutal selloff in the first half against the backdrop of a surge in inflation, the Ukraine conflict and the Fed's pivot away from easy-money policy.

Investors leaned into positive sentiment after the Federal Reserve hinted a more tempered program of interest rate hikes. The less hawkish tone was echoed in comments from Fed Governor Christopher Waller on Thursday. In calling fears of a U.S. recession overblown, he advocated for a 50 basis-point hike in September, while St Louis Fed bank president James Bullard said he saw a "good chance" of a soft landing for the economy. The U.S. central bank holds its next policy-setting meeting on July 26-27.

Such sentiment was taken as a cue by some to add positions, including in high-growth stocks, which had suffered in the first half of 2022 as investors fretted over their prospects in a rising interest rate environment.

The latest indicator of the health of the U.S. economy is due later in the day with the release of U.S. non-farm payroll data. The consensus expectation is for 268,000 jobs to have been added in May.