Asian stocks split the middle as China rises on trade talk hopes, Japan slips

• Asian markets diverge as Japan plays catchup with bearish headlines.
• Investors are hoping for a positive outcome from upcoming vice-minister level talks between the US and China.

Asian stocks diverged for Friday, with Chinese equities rising on refreshed hopes of US-China trade talks slated for January 7th-8th, while Japanese markets struggled to play catchup on a busy week that saw a rapid sell-off on renewed risk aversion sparked by a downward revision of Apple Inc’s sales outlook. Japanese indexes were closed for several days this week for New Year’s celebrations, and with the Japan bourses back in action for Friday, indexes saw a pulldown as investors caught up on various sell-side factors.

In China, the Hong Kong Hang Seng index is up a healthy 1.4%, with the Shanghai CSI 300 jumping a solid 2.0% for Friday, while emerging markets remains steady but up on the day with the MSCI broad Asia-Pacific index up a scant 0.20%.

For Japan, markets told a very different story, with the Nikkei 225 tumbling -2.75% as the Tokyo Topix index follows closely behind at -1.85%. Australia is also catching bearish headwinds, with the ASX 200 declining -0.25%, holding steadier than Japan’s markets but still tripping for the last  day of 2019’s first trading week.

Nikkei 225 Technical Levels