Asia slips after U.S.-China trade talks end without progress

Asian stocks fell on Friday after U.S.-China trade talks ended without progress and market focus shifted to a speech by the Federal Reserve chairman for fresh clues on the direction of U.S. monetary policy. Spreadbetters expected European stocks to open mixed, with Britain’s FTSE .FTSE dipping 0.15 percent, Germany’s DAX .GDAXI rising 0.1 percent and France’s CAC .FCHI edging up 0.05 percent.

U.S. and Chinese officials ended two days of talks on Thursday with no major breakthrough. At the same time, their trade war escalated with another round of dueling tariffs on $16 billion worth of each country’s goods taking effect. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS shed 0.25 percent. It was still up about 1 percent on the week. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng .HSI fell 0.55 percent and the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC dropped 0.35 percent.

Australian stocks rose 0.15 percent and South Korea’s KOSPI .KS11 advanced 0.2 percent. Japan’s Nikkei .N225 climbed 0.65 percent, lifted by a weaker yen. The S&P 500 .SPX shed 0.17 percent overnight to pull back slightly from a record high scaled midweek, with industrial shares sagging after the United States and China imposed a fresh round of trade tariffs on each other. Shares of industrial giants Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) and Boeing Co (BA.N), bellwethers of trade confidence, were among the biggest drags on the Dow .DJI, which lost about 0.3 percent. Caterpillar shares fell 2.0 percent, and Boeing shares fell 0.7 percent. The greenback extended its overnight surge to touch a two-week high of 111.49 yen JPY=. The euro was 0.15 percent higher at $1.1553 EUR= after retreating 0.5 percent the previous day.