China trade, Singapore GDP Taylor Swift boost

Asia-Pacific markets were mixed Friday after an inflation-fueled selloff in the previous session, with investor assessing economic data from Singapore and South Korea while awaiting China trade numbers.

China’s trade data for March will be released later in the day, with exports forecast to fall 2.3% year on year by economists polled by Reuters. This follows a weaker-than-expected rise in the country’s inflation on Thursday.

Singapore’s first-quarter gross domestic product climbed 2.7% year on year, advance estimates showed, faster than the 2.2% growth recorded in the last quarter of 2023.

The city-state’s central bank held its monetary policy steady, leaving the width and level of its policy band unchanged. In contrast to other countries, Singapore uses exchange rate settings for its monetary policy, instead of a benchmark interest rate.

South Korea’s March unemployment rate rose to 2.8%, while investors awaited the Bank of Korea’s rate decision.

The country’s benchmark Kospi index was down 0.38%, but the small-cap Kosdaq gained 0.62%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.51%, while the broad-based Topix rose 0.53%.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.25%.

However, futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 17,014, pointing to a weaker open compared to the HSI’s close of 17,095.03.

Overnight in the U.S., tech shares pulled both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite into positive territory, with both indexes gaining 0.74% and 1.68%, respectively.

On the other hand, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 2.43 points, or 0.01%.

Nvidia jumped 4.1%, while Amazon added 1.7% to hit an all-time high in the session, and Alphabet gained more than 2%.

Apple popped 4.3% after Bloomberg News reported that the company would transition its Mac product line to artificial intelligence-focused chips. The iPhone maker registered its best day since May 2023.

— CNBC’s Hakyung Kim and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.