Aerial view of Mt. Fuji, Tokyo Tower and modern skyscrapers in Tokyo on a sunny day.
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Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed Friday as reports of an Israeli military strike on Iran kept investors jittery after Wall Street gained on solid U.S. economic data.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 1.28% while the Topix lost 1.22%. South Korea’s Kospi was 0.83% lower and the small-cap Kosdaq declined 1.82%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 traded flat.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index last traded at 24,178, compared with the HSI’s last close of 24,035.38.
U.S. stock futures ticked lower but major stock benchmarks were on course to end the week on a positive note. U.S. producer prices in May rose just 0.1% from the previous month, coming in cooler than the 0.2% jump expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones. The softer reading helped boost major stock indexes, while bond yields declined, improving investor sentiment. This followed a cooler-than-expected consumer inflation report earlier in the week.
Overnight stateside, all three key benchmarks closed higher. The S&P 500 rose, helped by a rally in Oracle that lifted the big tech sector. The benchmark climbed 0.38% to close at 6,045.26. The broad market S&P 500 now sits less than 2% off its record high. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.24% and ended the day at 19,662.48. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 101.85 points, or 0.24%, settling at 42,967.62.
— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han, Pia Singh, Sean Conlon contributed to this report.