Asian stock markets: Mildly offered, ASX 200 drops 0.75% ahead of China news

• Equities in Asia-Pacific dwindle as US President Trump to hold China conference.
• PBOC infuses liquidity, Hong Kong speaks on the US removing special status.
• Britain joins the US in fighting the Asian major.
• Japan’s data-dump flashed upbeat figures but failed to put a floor under NIKKEI.

With the escalating tensions between the global champions, the US and China, Asian shares remain pressured while heading into the European session on Friday. The risk-tone shifted gears after US President Donald Trump told to hold China press conference. Markets fear additional sanctions, as signaled earlier in the week, following the US House of Representatives’ passage of a bill to punish Chinese authorities involved in the Xinjiang case.

Not only the US, but the UK also fought against the Asian major by trying to increase hardships for Chinese tech, as well as supporting the Hong Kong passport holders to gain British citizenship.

Elsewhere, China escalated anti-trade measures against Australia and Japan while Tokyo officials sound worries despite upbeat data from the Asian nation.

Against this backdrop, MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares, ex-Japan drop 0.22% whereas Japan’s NIKKEI shed 0.30% to 21,850 by the press time. Further, Australia’s ASX remains depressed despite the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) liquidity infusion but stocks in China seem to avoid negative prints mainly for that reason.

Moving on, Indian stocks also print the light red and so does Indonesia’s IDX following the Bank of Indonesia’s (BI) upbeat comments. However, the Philippines PSEi Composite bucks the trend with 4.82% gains to 5,838 as the nation eases lockdown restrictions.

On a broader scale, the risk-off sentiment weighs on the US 10-year Treasury yields as well as stock futures after Wall Street cheered hopes of further stimulus.

Considering the presence of US President Donald Trump’s press conference at 18:00 GMT, a light calendar might not please the traders. Though, American data concerning activity and consumer confidence could offer intermediate moves.