Shares on Wall Street looked set to
open marginally higher ESc1 SPc1, with the main indexes having closed
between 0.75 percent and 0.9 percent higher on rising expectations for
first-quarter corporate profits.
Asian
stocks ended the week on a positive note, unscathed by a U.S. trade
probe on Chinese steel exports. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific
shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS added 0.5 percent, but was down 0.4
percent on the week.
Asian steelmakers were mostly steady or higher, as investors dismissed for now any negative impact from the launch of a U.S. trade probe against Chinese steel exporters, although Chinese companies shed some of their earlier gains. The move sent their U.S. counterparts surging over 8 percent overnight.
Markets also mostly shrugged off White House comments that the U.S. may consider tit-for-tat tariffs on imports, and concerns raised by the International Monetary Fund that U.S. tax cuts could fuel financial risk-taking and increase public debt.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 advanced 1 percent, posting a weekly gain of 1.6 percent.
The safe-haven yen, which tends to move inversely to the Nikkei, was on track for its worst week against the dollar in seven JPY=, down around half a percent as nerves over geopolitical tensions have eased off a touch.
Chinese shares in Shanghai .SSEC added 0.1 percent but recorded a 2.2 percent weekly drop, their worst since mid-December.
In commodities, oil prices edged lower and were on course for the biggest weekly drop in a month, over doubts that an OPEC-led production cut will restore balance to an oversupplied market.
Front-month Brent futures LCOc1: were at $52.95 a barrel and set for a 5.2 percent weekly drop, the most since the week of March 10. Gold XAU= was flat at $1,280.91 an ounce.
Asian steelmakers were mostly steady or higher, as investors dismissed for now any negative impact from the launch of a U.S. trade probe against Chinese steel exporters, although Chinese companies shed some of their earlier gains. The move sent their U.S. counterparts surging over 8 percent overnight.
Markets also mostly shrugged off White House comments that the U.S. may consider tit-for-tat tariffs on imports, and concerns raised by the International Monetary Fund that U.S. tax cuts could fuel financial risk-taking and increase public debt.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 advanced 1 percent, posting a weekly gain of 1.6 percent.
The safe-haven yen, which tends to move inversely to the Nikkei, was on track for its worst week against the dollar in seven JPY=, down around half a percent as nerves over geopolitical tensions have eased off a touch.
Chinese shares in Shanghai .SSEC added 0.1 percent but recorded a 2.2 percent weekly drop, their worst since mid-December.
In commodities, oil prices edged lower and were on course for the biggest weekly drop in a month, over doubts that an OPEC-led production cut will restore balance to an oversupplied market.
Front-month Brent futures LCOc1: were at $52.95 a barrel and set for a 5.2 percent weekly drop, the most since the week of March 10. Gold XAU= was flat at $1,280.91 an ounce.
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