Futures tip Japanese equities to open higher. Nikkei futures traded in Chicago were up 0.2 percent at 20,150 and Osaka futures were 0.05 percent higher at 20,120. The Nikkei 225 closed at 20,110.51 in the previous session.
Australian SPI futures were down by 0.98 percent at 5,650. This compared to the S&P/ASX 200’s Thursday close of 5,705.952.
Stocks on Wall Street closed mixed. The Dow Jones industrial average edged down by 0.06 percent or 12.74 points to end at 21,397.29, the S&P 500 shed 0.05 percent or 1.11 points to close at 2,434.5 and the Nasdaq gained 0.04 percent or 2.73 points to close at 6,236.69.
The dollar was softer against the yen, trading at 111.29 at 6:47 a.m. HK/SIN compared to levels around the 111.3 handle seen in the last session. The Australian dollar edged lower for the fourth straight session to fetch $0.7538.
On the economic calendar for Friday, Singapore industrial production and CPI for the month of May is expected at 1 p.m. HK/SIN. Taiwan retail sales for the month of May is due at 4:00 p.m. India will release current account data for the first quarter at 8:00 p.m.
