The Nikkei bucks the trend in an otherwise sluggish session for Asian equities
Japanese stocks are seeing decent gains on the day despite a weaker close in Wall Street in trading overnight as investors are gearing towards the 10-day break after the end of this week. Other Asian equities are generally more subdued with the Shanghai Composite down by 1% and the Kospi down by 0.4% as global economic conditions remain questionable after South Korea Q1 GDP contracts, slowing to its weakest pace since the global financial crisis.
US equity futures are up slightly by 0.1% while Treasury yields are mostly flat across the curve as we begin the session. I would expect European assets to pick up from sentiment seen here rather than the mixed sentiment from Asia. That should keep USD/JPY close to and around 112.00 ahead of the US durable goods data later today.
