Skyline of Tokyo, Japan.
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Asia-Pacific markets opened mostly higher Friday, tracking Wall Street gains as investors shrugged off the U.S. government shutdown.
Investors are waiting to see how long the shutdown will last to assess the gravity of its economic repercussions. Historically, government shutdowns in the U.S. have not been market-moving events.
Japan’s September unemployment rate rose to 2.6%, government data showed Friday, higher than the 2.4% expected by economists polled by Reuters. The latest reading compared with the 2.3% unemployment rate in August.
The country’s September manufacturing purchasing managers’ index reading will be released later in the day. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.42% at the open, while the Topix index was up 0.35%.
Australia’s ASX/S&P 200 declined 0.17%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was set to open slightly lower, with its futures contract trading at 27,273, against the index’s previous close of 27,287.12.
Chinese and South Korean markets were closed for holidays.
U.S. equity futures were little changed in early Asian hours after the three leading U.S. indexes closed at record highs.
Overnight, the S&P 500 inched up 0.06%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed more than 78 points, or nearly 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite rose about 0.4%, powered by a 0.9% gain in Nvidia that propelled the chipmaker to an all-time high. Other chipmakers also gained ground, with Intel and AMD each rising more than 3%.
The U.S. government shutdown has led the Labor Department to pause all activity, including the scheduled Friday release of the September nonfarm payrolls report. While that will reduce the amount of economic data the Federal Reserve can factor into its interest rate decision at its October meeting, it also removes a factor that could lend pressure to stocks.
— CNBC’s Pia Singh and Sean Conlon contributed to this report.
