Asia: Stocks mixed before US-Russia summit

ASIAN stocks were mixed Friday after better-than-expected Japanese growth and weak Chinese data, while oil slipped back ahead of a US-Russia summit on Ukraine.

On Thursday Wall Street finished little changed as strong wholesale inflation data tempered optimism about the US Federal Reserve cutting interest rates.

A quarter-point cut is still expected but a larger half-point rate cut is likely “off the table”, said Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital Management.

Intel surged 7.4 per cent following a Bloomberg News report that US President Donald Trump is considering an investment in the beleaguered chip company in exchange for a government stake.

Japan’s economy grew 0.3 per cent in the three months to June, while output for the previous period was revised upwards, averting a possible technical recession for the world’s number four economy.

The expansion came despite tariffs imposed by Trump on Japanese imports, including on cars – an industry accounting for eight per cent of Japanese jobs.

In morning trade in Asia, the Nikkei was up almost one per cent while Shanghai, Seoul and Sydney also moved higher.

But Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell for the second straight day after Chinese retail sales and industrial production grew at a slower rate than expected last month.

A long-term crisis in the real estate sector and high youth unemployment have been weighing on Chinese consumer sentiment for several years.

The situation has worsened with the heightened turmoil sparked by Trump’s trade war.

Oil prices dipped, reversing gains on Thursday ahead of Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on ending the Ukraine war.

Oil traders are worried “that if the meeting doesn’t go well, we’ll see stronger sanctions on Russian oil thereby depriving the world of or making it much difficult for this oil to get to the market”, said Stephen Schork of the Schork Group. AFP