After Wall Street benchmarks managed to close mostly higher, shares were mostly higher in Asia on Friday.
A major Communist Party meeting in China ended up with a resolution setting the stage for President Xi Jinping to remain top leader for life. The decision was expected.
Party leaders praised Xi's role in the country s rise as an economic and strategic power, approving a political history that gives him status alongside the most important party figures such as Mao Zedong.
Although the Chinese economy slowed after a downturn, the record $139.1 billion spent by Chinese shoppers during the November 11 Singles Day shopping extravaganza suggested potential for resilient retail demand.
The Nikkei 225 NIK jumped 1.1% in Tokyo, while the Kospi 180721 in South Korea added 1.5%. In Sydney, the S&P ASX 200 XJO gained 1%. The benchmark indexes gained in Singapore STI, Taiwan Y 9999 and Indonesia JAKIDX, while stocks slipped in Malaysia FBMKLCI, the latest round of mostly solid corporate earnings is winding down after helping the broader market rise for weeks and reaching a number of records. Inflation concerns have been rattling investors throughout the week.
According to a report by Craig Erlam of Oanda, an economy is running hot and with widespread price pressures.
He said the Fed may prove to be right in its judgement that pressures will ease naturally over time as they are broadly driven by temporary factors. How long can they afford to stay by and watch if inflation overshoot their target? Are they that confident in their assessment? The pressure is intensifying. The S&P 500 SPX is on track for its first weekly loss in six weeks. It rose 1% to 4,629 on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA fell by 0.4% to 35,921. In other trading, the U.S. crude oil CLZ 21 lost 21 cents to $81.38 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Thursday, it gained 25 cents to $81.59 per barrel.
The basis for international pricing for the Brent crude was BRNF 22 and gave up 23 cents to $82.64 per barrel.
The dollarUSDJPY went up to 114.16 Japanese yen from 114.07 yen.