Investing.com - Asian markets traded weaker on Friday as some of the details await on U.S. tax and trade policies were passed over by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in an interview with CNBC that did however sugegst the the Trump administration hopes for a tax cut package to be passed by Congress by August.
Japan's Nikkei 225 traded down 0.19% with shares of Toyota down 0.60%, Nissan up 0.13% and Sony easing by 0.11%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.65% on miners with shares of Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) down 3.87%, Fortescue off 3.01% and BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) easing 2.71%. In China, the Shanghai fell 0.19%.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were mixed after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Utilities, Telecoms and Healthcare sectors led shares higher while losses in the Basic Materials, Industrials and Consumer Services sectors led shares lower. At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.25% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index added 0.12%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.38%.
US equities ebbed and flowed throughout the session, after comments from new U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on tax reform failed to inspire a broad rally in equities while weaker than expected U.S. initial jobless claims data capped upside momentum.
Mr Mnuchin told CNBC that he wanted to see tax reform passed before Congress' August recess amid growing anxiety among market participants for further details on Trump’s tax reform and fiscal expansion plans.
On the economic data front, the latest U.S. labour market data weighed on equities, after the U.S. Department of Labor said initial jobless claims increased by 6,000 to 244,000 in the week ending February 18 from the previous week’s revised total of 238,000 compared to analysts’ estimates of a rise by 2,000 to 241,000 last week.
In corporate earnings news Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:TSLA) share priced slumped more than 6% to close at $255.99, after the electric carmaker posted a loss per share of 69 cents compared to Wall Street estimates' of a 42 cents loss.