Asian stocks: Mildly bid after China’s top-tier economics

• Worries surrounding the US-China trade future stop Asian stocks from following Wall Street gains.
• China’s upbeat Industrial Production, Retail Sales couldn’t supersede soft economic growth.

Equities in Asia fail to cheer better than forecast releases of China’s Industrial Production and Retail Sales data. The reason could be found in China’s fourth quarter (Q4) GDP that remained unchanged and pushed analysts at ING to say that 2020 will likely be about stabilization, rather than ‘recovery’.

Also limiting the share buyers were renewed fears of the phase-two deal talks between the US and China. Despite a successful signing in of the phase-one deal, there are clauses that will make the negotiations and the deal tough for both sides.

As a result, MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fails to follow Wall Street and rises 0.10% to 711.00 whereas Japan’s NIKKEI gains 0.50% to 24,050. Further, Australia’s ASX 200 follows the Japanese benchmark while posting 0.50% gains to 7,073 whereas Korea’s KOSPI fails to respect Bank of Korea (BOK) President Governor Lee Ju-yeol who said Fiscal policy would be much more effective than monetary policy in solving structural issues. The BOK left the current monetary policy unchanged at today’s meeting.

Chinese indices remained mostly unchanged as market-players were left unimpressed form the data whereas Hong Kong’s HANG SENG turns -0.10% to 28,865 by the press time of early Friday. Furthermore, India’s SENSEX registers minor losses to 41.900 while portraying the market’s cautious optimism, recovering prices of crude oil and strong US dollar amid upbeat data.

The US 10-year treasury yields and S&P 50 Futures are also posing a mirror image of the Asian stocks.

Traders will now have to wait for the US economic calendar to get active. Meanwhile, data from the UK and the Eurozone may offer an intermediate direction wherein trade/political headlines will also be equally important.