Asian Stocks Extend Gains As US Concerns Hit Dollar, Boost Gold

Asian markets extended their recovery on Friday after Donald Trump withdrew his tariff threats over Greenland, although lingering uncertainty about US policy weighed on the dollar and helped push precious metals to fresh records.

Investors were also preparing for next week’s Federal Reserve meeting following data broadly in line with forecasts and after US prosecutors aimed boss, Jerome Powell, raising fears over the bank’s independence.

Sentiment has picked up over the past two days after the US president pulled back from his warning to hit several European nations with levies because of their opposition to Washington taking over the Danish autonomous territory.

Asian stocks extended Thursday’s gains in light of the row-back, with Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, and Bangkok in positive territory.

London was flat at the open, but Paris and Frankfurt fell.

That followed a second successive advance on Wall Street.

However, Trump’s latest salvo against allies — as well as his ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro this month — revived trade war fears and uncertainty about US investment, putting downward pressure on the dollar this week.

Analysts said there was no guarantee that Europe-US relations had improved durably.

The Republicans’ willingness to threaten tariffs over any issue had rattled confidence on trading floors, weighing on the dollar and boosting safe-haven metals, analysts said.

In Asian trade, gold rallied to a fresh peak above $4,967 an ounce while silver touched more than $99.

With the Greenland crisis over for now, investors turned their attention to the US economy, which grew slightly more than originally estimated in the third quarter thanks to a boost in exports and investment, according to data delayed by last year’s government shutdown.

Separate figures showed jobless numbers dipped, and inflation settled slightly lower than where it was before the shutdown.

The bank is tipped to hold interest rates, having cut them in the previous three meetings.

The gathering comes against the backdrop of a deepening row between Trump and Powell, who the president has lambasted for not cutting borrowing costs quickly enough.

The pressure ramped up on Powell this month when the administration issued subpoenas hinting at a possible probe into a $2.5 billion renovation of the Fed headquarters.

“The bar to a further cut is too high and (Trump appointee) Steve Miran notwithstanding the Federal Open Market Committee are likely to err on the side of a hold, which will inevitably incur the wrath of president Trump,” wrote MCH Market Insights’ Michael Hewson, referring to the Fed’s decision-makers.

Fiona Cincotta at City Index added: “Sticky inflation and solid growth provide little incentive for the Fed to cut rates further for now. These data points support the Fed’s wait-and-see stance.”

The meeting also comes as Trump considers candidates to replace Powell when his term comes to an end in May.

The president told reporters on Thursday that “I have somebody that I think will be very good, but I’m not going to reveal it”.

“It’s someone very respected, very, very well known, and will do, I think, a very good job.”

While the dollar has struggled against most currencies, it rose against the yen on Friday after the Bank of Japan decided to hold off hiking interest rates while it tries to ascertain the impact of recent increases on inflation, which data showed remains above its two percent target.

In company news, Japanese giant Nintendo jumped as much as 6.9 per cent after gaming data firm Circana said its Switch 2 console led the US hardware market in unit and dollar sales in 2025. The firm ended 4.5 per cent higher.

The “Switch 2 remains the fastest-selling video game hardware platform in tracked history”, Circana’s Mat Piscatella wrote on BlueSky.

Next week’s US earnings calendar is packed with results from Apple, Microsoft, Boeing, Tesla, Meta, and other corporate giants. There will also be a Federal Reserve monetary policy decision.

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Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 per cent at 53,846.87 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.5 percent at 26,749.51 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.3 per cent at 4,136.16 (close)

London – FTSE 100: FLAT at 10,152.45

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1739 from $1.1751 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3496 from $1.3500

Dollar/yen: UP at 158.50 yen from 158.39 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.98 pence from 87.05 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.5 per cent at $59.63 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.4 per cent at $64.34 per barrel

New York – Dow: UP 0.6 per cent at 49,384.01 (close)

AFP