(Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks followed US equities lower as investors retreated from risk assets amid uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Bitcoin fell as details of a US strategic reserve underwhelmed.
Shares in Australia, Japan and South Korea all fell with benchmarks sliding more than 1%. An index of US-listed Chinese companies outperformed Wall Street on Thursday.
The pullback in equities was partly pared by encouraging results from US chipmaker Broadcom Inc. that lifted US futures Friday, but did little to reverse the otherwise downbeat mood across equity markets. The S&P 500 fell 1.8% and the Nasdaq 100 dropped 2.8% in the main session.
Traders pointed to uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs after another day of White House headlines that failed to provide long-term clarity on levies facing Canada and Mexico. Financial markets have whipsawed this week as investors deal with geopolitical uncertainty and conflicting signals from the US about Trump’s levies.
“Confusion reigns around the Trump Administration policy agenda,” said Chris Weston, head of research for Pepperstone Group. “While there are few signs of panic, funds and fast-money accounts cut equity risk.”
On Thursday, Trump delayed levies on goods covered by the North American trade deal from the two countries until April 2. Stocks failed to rally on the news. Trump said he’s not looking at the stock market because the US will be strong in the long term.
Later comments from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent all but confirmed tariffs will be coming. Bessent rejected the idea that tariff hikes will ignite a new wave of inflation, and suggested that the Federal Reserve ought to view them as having a one-time impact.
US stocks face their biggest weekly drop since September, while a gauge of Asian equities faces its best week since the same month, in a sign of dividing fortunes. European shares up 1%, which would be the best week in three.
Bitcoin fell after details of a US cryptocurrency reserve emerged and indicated the government will use digital assets forfeited as part of criminal or civil proceedings.
Broadcom’s upbeat revenue forecast reassured investors that spending on artificial-intelligence computing remained ongoing, pushing its shares around 13% higher in after-market trading. The post-hours rally spread to tech companies that were among the hardest hit on Thursday. Nvidia Corp. and Marvell Technology Inc., which plunged during the main session as its outlook disappointed investors, rose after the closing bell.
Treasuries were slightly higher Friday after a muted session on Thursday. An index of the dollar fell for a fifth session, its longest losing streak in almost a year. The Mexican peso and the Canadian dollar rose on news of the potential tariff reprieve. Australian and New Zealand yields fell early Friday.
In Asia, China’s central government has ample fiscal policy tools and space to respond to possible domestic and external challenges, Chinese Finance Minister Lan Fo’an said Thursday on the sidelines of the annual legislative session. The People’s Bank of China will implement a moderately loose monetary policy, Governor Pan Gongsheng said, repeating an earlier pledge to cut interest rates and lower the reserve requirement ratio for lenders at “an appropriate time.”
Elsewhere in the region, data set for release includes inflation for Thailand and Taiwan and foreign reserves for China and Singapore.
Upcoming US nonfarm payrolls data on Friday may help traders identify the path ahead for interest rates, as they grapple with the impact of rocky geopolitics, the impact of tariffs on global growth and the outlook for inflation.
Friday’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics will provide an update for Fed officials about momentum in the labor market that’s been the key support — at least until January — of household spending and the economy.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell is slated to speak at a monetary policy forum Friday afternoon. Policymakers next meet March 18-19 and they’re expected to hold interest rates steady as they gauge the labor market and inflation trends as well as recent government policy shifts.
Meanwhile, Fed Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said he wouldn’t support lowering interest rates in March, but sees room to cut two, or possibly three, times this year.
“If the labor market, everything, seems to be holding, then you can just kind of keep an eye on inflation,” Waller said Thursday at the Wall Street Journal CFO Network Summit. “If you think it’s moving back towards target, you can start lowering rates. I wouldn’t say at the next meeting, but could certainly see going forward.”
In commodities, oil eked out a marginal gain Thursday with West Texas Intermediate futures settling little changed above $66 a barrel, snapping a four-day straight losing streak by a hair. Bitcoin traded above $90,000.
Key events this week:
Eurozone GDP, Friday
US jobs report, Friday
Fed Chair Jerome Powell gives keynote speech at an event in New York hosted by University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Friday
Fed’s John Williams, Michelle Bowman and Adriana Kugler speak, Friday
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
S&P 500 futures rose 0.4% as of 10:05 a.m. Tokyo time
Hang Seng futures fell 1.3%
Japan’s Topix fell 1.5%
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.6%
Euro Stoxx 50 futures fell 0.7%
Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
The euro was little changed at $1.0788
The Japanese yen was little changed at 147.99 per dollar
The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.2467 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin fell 4.4% to $85,917.39
Ether fell 4% to $2,125.23
Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 4.26%
Japan’s 10-year yield was unchanged at 1.520%
Australia’s 10-year yield declined six basis points to 4.42%
Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.3% to $66.16 a barrel
Spot gold fell 0.3% to $2,904.17 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
