Asian stocks traded mixed on Friday as investors searched for guidance on developments in the U.S.-China trade war and in the U.K.'s planned departure from the European Union. The Nikkei 225 in Japan eked out a 0.22 percent gain to close at 22,799.81 while the Topix index added 0.29 percent to 1,648.44. In South Korea, the Kospi index erased earlier losses to rise 0.11 percent to 2,087.89. Shares of major chipmaker SK Hynix jumped 3.63 percent. The company revealed third-quarter earnings on Thursday where revenue fell 40 percent on-year and net profit was down 89 percent for the same period. Still, revenue rose 6 percent from the previous quarter due to signs of demand recovery and pricing in the memory chip market. Rival Samsung Electronics traded up 0.39 percent. The world's largest smartphone and chipmaker is due to release official earnings on October 31, but previously in guidance said it expects operating profit to drop by more than half from a year ago. Chipmakers have struggled in an environment where price and demand for memory chips have been low for almost a year due to inventory adjustments and a supply glut. Australia's benchmark ASX 200 rose 0.68 percent to 6,739.20, with most sectors advancing. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dropped 0.36 percent in late-afternoon trade. Chinese mainland markets erased early losses to climb in the afternoon: The Shanghai composite rose 0.48 percent to 2,954.93, the Shenzhen composite reversed losses to trade up 0.99 percent at 1,632.40 and the Shenzhen component index advanced 1.1 percent to 9,660.44. Overall, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat in the afternoon. Friday's session followed a mixed finish in the U.S. overnight where the S&P 500 posted a slight gain on one of the busiest days of the earnings season. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence delivered a speech Thursday on the future of the relationship between the United States and China. In prepared remarks, Pence said Washington "does not seek confrontation with China," nor does it want to "contain China's development." Still, Pence criticized Beijing's construction of a "surveillance state," and "increasingly provocative" military action, as well as its handling of the protests in Hong Kong, Reuters reported. "Market fear was that the speech would be a ‘bad cop' speech that derailed progress on a US-China trade deal," Tobin Gorey, an agricultural commodities strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia wrote in a morning note. "We thought that unlikely despite this US administration often being tagged as somewhat chaotic." Gorey explained that the real target of Pence's speech was the "domestic political debate." The Trump administration is currently negotiating with Beijing to pen down a trade agreement that would address issues including trade deficits, intellectual property theft, and forced technology transfers. ECB meeting Elsewhere, the European Central Bank kept its policy rates unchanged and kept its forward guidance that suggested the bank's main interest rates will remain at their current or lower levels until there's strong evidence of a pick-up in prices. It was also ECB President Mario Draghi's last monetary policy meeting at the institution. The euro traded at $1.1105, slightly off from an earlier high of $1.1112. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, meanwhile, has said he will give lawmakers more time to study his Brexit deal but only if they agree to a general election on December 12. Following this week's developments, where lawmakers agreed in principle to Johnson's plans but rejected the limited timeframe to review legislation, the U.K. is unlikely to depart the European Union by the previous deadline of October 31. The EU is currently deciding how long an extension it wants to give the U.K. for membership while it attempts to agree on a withdrawal deal among its lawmakers. The British pound was fractionally lower at $1.2844 from its previous close at $1.2850. "So against a slightly risk off backdrop with renewed Brexit uncertainty, downbeat EU economic outlook and a firm position from the US on China, the (dollar) has regained a bit of its mojo," Rodrigo Catril, senior foreign-exchange strategist at the National Australia Bank, wrote in a morning note. Currencies and oil The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of its peers, traded at 97.675, about 0.05 percent higher than its previous close. The Japanese yen, considered a safe-haven asset, changed hands at 108.63 per dollar, while the Australian dollar traded at $0.6825. Oil prices declined Friday during Asian hours: Global benchmark Brent fell 0.16 percent to $61.57 per barrel while U.S. crude futures were also down 0.27 percent at $56.08. Source: CNBC
