BANGKOK — Asian markets advanced Friday, shrugging off another decline on Wall Street, with markets in China gaining after state-run banks and other financial institutions were ordered to do more to help spur more consumer spending.
U.S. futures and oil prices advanced.
Hong Kong’s benchmark jumped 2.5% to 24,038.85, while the Shanghai Composite index surged 1.9% to 3,420.65.
China’s National Financial Regulatory Administration issued a notice ordering financial institutions to help develop consumer finance and encourage use of credit cards, do more to aid borrowers who run into trouble, and be more transparent in their lending practices.
Economists say China needs consumers to spend more to get the economy out of the doldrums, although most have advocated broader, more fundamental reforms such as increasing wages, social welfare and support for public health and education.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 0.9% to 37,120.07, while South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.2% to 2,569.43.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.6% to 7,793.50, while Bangkok’s SET jumped 0.9%. The Taiex in Taiwan was up 0.3%.
On Thursday, Wall Street’s sell-off deepened as President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war dragged the S&P 500 more than 10% below the record it set last month.
A 10% drop is big enough that professional investors have a name for it — a “correction” — and the S&P 500’s 1.4% slide on Thursday sent the index to its first since 2023. The benchmark index closed at 5,521.52.
The losses came after Trump upped the stakes in his trade war by threatening 200% tariffs on Champagne and other European wines and alcohol, unless the EU rolls back a tariff on U.S. whiskey it imposed in response to U.S. tariffs on European steel and aluminum. Not even a double-shot of good news on the U.S. economy could stop the bleeding.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.3% to 40,813.57, while the Nasdaq composite fell 2% to 17,303.01.
The dizzying swings for stocks result from uncertainty about how much pain Trump will let the economy endure through tariffs and other policies in order to reshape the country and world as he wants. The president has said he wants manufacturing jobs back in the United States, along with a smaller U.S. government workforce and other fundamental changes.
Measures of confidence in the economy for U.S. households and businesses have dropped due to uncertainty about which tariffs will stick from Trump’s barrage of on -again, off -again announcements. A pullback in spending that could sap vitality from the economy, and some U.S. businesses say they’ve already begun to see a change in their customers’ behavior.
