HONG KONG — Shares were mixed Friday in Asia after Wall Street drifted higher as reports suggested the Federal Reserve may have more leeway to cut interest rates later this year to support the U.S. economy if it weakens under the weight of President Donald Trump’s high tariffs.
U.S. futures and oil prices were little changed.
Markets have calmed somewhat after the turmoil unleashed by Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs offensive, aimed at compelling companies to base manufacturing inside the United States. But the policies are already taking a toll.
The United Nations on Thursday forecast slower global economic growth this year and next, pointing to the impact of the tariffs and worsening trade tensions. U.N. economists also cited the volatile geopolitical landscape and threats of rising production costs, supply chain disruptions and financial turbulence.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.3% to 37,659.39 after the government reported that Japan’s economy contracted at a faster rate than expected in the first quarter of the year. Exports fell and consumer spending was flat, according to the data which showed a contraction of 0.7% from a year earlier.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1% to 23,216.20 while the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.6% to 3,360.82.
E-commerce giant Alibaba tumbled 5.2% after the company’s financial performance missed forecasts.
Seoul’s Kospi was nearly unchanged at 2,621.75 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia added 0.6% to 8,349.30.
Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.3%.
Most U.S. stocks drifted higher in quiet trading Thursday following the jumble of mixedreports that offered little clarity on how the U.S. economy is managing Trump’s trade war.
The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 5,916.93, enough to extend its winning streak to a fourth day and to pull within 3.7% of its all-time high set earlier this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.6% to 42,322.75, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.2% to 19,112.32.
The reports did little to spell out whether the economy is heading into a recession, as many investors had been fearing, or shaking off the uncertainty after Trump called off many of his tariffs temporarily. Shoppers spent less at U.S. retailers last month than expected, while inflation was better at the wholesale level than economists had forecast.
Other updates said U.S. manufacturing looks like it’s still contracting but fewer U.S. workers are applying for unemployment benefits than expected.
Even though China and the United States recently agreed on a 90-day stand-down for many of their tariffs, frictions remain and it will take time for tariffs to fully show up in economic data.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned in a speech on Thursday that the world “may be entering a period of more frequent, and potentially more persistent, supply shocks” that could goose inflation higher and present a “difficult challenge for the economy and for central banks.”
Such uncertainty showed itself in Walmart’s stock, which slipped 0.5% even though it reported a bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
Like other U.S. companies struggling through Trump’s on-again-off-again rollout of tariffs, Walmart said it decided not to offer a forecast for how much profit it will make in the current quarter.
The nation’s largest retailer also said that it must raise prices due to higher costs caused by Trump’s tariffs.
Cisco Systems rose 4.8% after the tech giant topped expectations for profit. Analysts said they’re optimistic about Cisco’s artificial-intelligence prospects.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, Dick’s Sporting Goods tumbled 14.6% after it said it would buy the struggling Foot Locker chain for $2.4 billion. Dick’s also said that it made a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
Foot Locker soared 85.7% after coming into the day with a loss of nearly 41% for the year so far.
In the oil market, crude prices sank roughly 2% on expectations that more petroleum could be set to flow into global markets because of a possible deal between the United States and Iran over that country’s nuclear program. Such a deal could help ease sanctions against Iran, which is a major producer of oil.
Early Friday, oil prices were virtually unchanged. U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 1 cent to $61.61 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, was unchanged at $64.53 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar fell to 145.40 Japanese yen from 145.69 yen. The euro advanced to $1.1204 from $1.1185.
