North Korea concerns, regional mixed data weigh on Asian markets

Asian markets struggled for a clear direction on Friday, with investors digesting regional economic trade data and remarks from ECB President Mario Draghi on future policy changes.

Market participants are also keeping an eye on North Korea, which celebrates its founding anniversary day on September 9. According to experts, this day could be seen as a perfect opportunity to show up power with testing of a new ballistic missile.

Australia ASX -14.40 -0.25% 5,739.40 CLOSED

Shanghai Comp -0.25 -0.01% 3,365.24 CLOSED

Hang Seng Index +126.34 +0.46% 27,649.26 OPEN

Nikkei 225 -121.70 -0.63% 19,274.82 CLOSED

TSEC 50 Index +71.44 +0.68% 10,609.95 CLOSED

On the data front, China's trade surplus narrowed to $41.99 billion from a prior $46.73 billion. Analysts had estimated an expansion to $48.6 billion in August. Imports rose by 13.3 percent, above a 10 percent rise seen, while exports added 5.5 percent, below a 6.0 percent eyed.

Earlier, Japan’s unadjusted current account surplus for July came in at 2.320 trillion yen, larger than an initially forecasted 2.059 trillion yen.

A revision of Japan’s second-quarter gross domestic product turned out negatively, with economic growth now standing at 0.6 percent from a previous quarterly reading of 1.0 percent. In yearly terms, the economy expanded by 2.5 percent, down from a prior 4.0 percent reading.

On Thursday, US indexes were mixed as financial sector stocks weighed in the light of falling expectations for a third Federal Reserve interest rate hike later this year.

A rising rates environment is seen as positive for banks, as they boost net interest margin. However, market labor conditions seem to be worsening. The US Labor Department said jobless claims increased by 62,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 298,000.

In Europe, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the bank will continue buying assets for 60 billion euro a month until the end of 2017, with the possibility to extend that period if believed necessary. However, Draghi said the Governing Council will take a decision regarding its current QE program at its October monetary policy encounter.

Key economic events for Friday, 8 September 2017:

08:30 GMT UK Industrial Production (MoM) (Jul) Forecast: 0.2%

08:30 GMT UK Manufacturing Production (MoM) (Jul) Forecast: 0.3%

08:30 GMT UK Trade Balance (Jul) Forecast: -11.95B

08:30 GMT UK Trade Balance Non-EU (Jul) Previous: -4.47B

12:00 GMT UK NIESR GDP Estimate Previous: 0.2%

12:45 GMT FOMC Member Harker Speaks

17:00 GMT US Baker Hughes Oil Rig Count Previous: 759

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