Investing.com - Asian stocks were mixed in morning trade on Friday and are set for a third week of losses as traders digest the latest headlines on the Sino-U.S. trade war.
China’s Shanghai Composite edged up 0.2% by 10:30 PM ET (02:30 GMT), while the Shenzhen Component slipped 0.4%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.2%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.7%. Core consumer prices, an inflation gauge closely watched, rose 0.9% in April from a year earlier, in line with expectations and accelerating slightly from March’s 0.8% gain, government data showed on Friday.
South Korea’s KOSPI declined by 0.9%. Down under, Australia’s ASX 200 fell 0.7%.
The Sino-U.S. trade war remained in the headlines as U.S. President Donald Trump said Chinese telecom giant Huawei could be part of a trade pact with the country.
“It’s possible that Huawei even would be included in some kind of a trade deal,” Trump told reporters at the White House, without providing details. “Huawei is something that’s very dangerous. You look at what they’ve done from a security standpoint, from a military standpoint, it’s very dangerous.”
Huawei was put on a U.S. blacklist earlier this month. Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg said the U.S. had held off the ban but decided to take action after the negotiations with China hit an impasse.
Meanwhile, Chinese officials blamed the U.S. for wrecking trade talks and that they must alter their “wrong practices” before negotiations could resume.
No further trade talks are scheduled at this point, but Trump has said he will meet his Chinese part Xi Jinping at next month’s G-20 summit in Japan.