SINGAPORE: Asian stock markets headed for a second straight week of gains on Friday and the dollar for its first weekly rise in more than a month as investors have welcomed an apparent softening of the White House stance on China, despite no signal of detente.
U.S. tech giant and Google parent Alphabet also beat profit expectations and reaffirmed AI spending targets, pushing its shares up nearly 5% in after-hours trade and pulling along peers and S&P 500 futures, which rose 0.5%.
Overnight on Wall Street investors had shrugged off a mixed bag of corporate results and the S&P 500 rose 2%.
The dollar, which has taken a beating through a volatile few weeks of tariff announcements, reversals and a flight out of U.S. assets has seemed to steady around $1.1350 per euro at 143 Japanese yen, with dollar selling abating in Asia on Friday.
"There is probably a feeling from market participants that they have regained some 'control' on the U.S. government, and can somehow force a more friendly stance on key topics," said ING currency strategist Francesco Pesole in a note to clients.
"Investors will be seeking confirmation of the more optimistic stance on U.S. assets to justify further dollar gains."
After tit-for-tat tariffs put an effective embargo on trade between the world's two biggest economies, the U.S. this week shifted tone and said the situation would be unsustainable.
China, however, has said it has not held trade talks with Washington, despite comments to the contrary from U.S. President Donald Trump, and has warned other countries against striking deals with the U.S. that come at China's expense.
"The equity rebound in the past two days is the direct result of Donald Trump's seeming U-turn on his stance on China tariffs, thereby confirming that the U.S. does not have the cards in this particular poker game," said Jefferies' global head of equity strategy Christopher Wood.
In Japan the Nikkei was up 1.4% on Friday and has regained all its losses since Trump's April 2 announcement of the highest U.S. tariffs in a hundred years - levies he largely suspended, except for China and a baseline tariff of 10%.
Tech shares led gains, with electric-motor maker Nidec stock up 11% as it forecast a record annual profit and Nissan shares bouncing 2% as investors bet the worst may be over as the automaker forecast a record net loss.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng rose 0.9% and there were small rises for mainland China's Shanghai Composite and blue chip CSI300.
The U.S. dollar index was up 0.4% for the week at 99.619.
Markets in Australia and New Zealand were closed for a public holiday. There were also plenty of warning signs that markets' uneasy calm may not last very long.
Gold was firm at $3,349 an ounce and analysts at Philip Securities in Singapore noted the Gold/S&P 500 ratio, a gauge of investors' gloom, was at its highest since the pandemic-driven bear market of 2020.
Overnight Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Chipotle Mexican Grill and American Airlines all cut or withdrew forecasts due to elevated uncertainty among consumers.
Pressure remains on the U.S. Treasury market which was sold off heavily as Trump's tariff barrage rattled confidence in U.S. leadership and assets, leaving 10-year yields at 4.3168% on Friday. - Reuters
