Business
Asian stocks edge up before US jobs data, tariff ruling
Shares opened higher in Japan and Australia, while South Korea lagged. A flat day for the S&P 500 on Thursday masked selling in tech behemoths such as Nvidia Corp. Treasury futures inched up and mortgage backed securities rallied after Trump said he was directing the purchase of $200 billion of mortgage bonds.
The rebound in equities after April’s tariff-driven slump faces a key test from the court ruling, just as investors brace for US jobs data that will offer clues on the Federal Reserve’s path for interest rates. In a defensive shift, money has rotated out of richly valued tech giants into smaller companies, tempering the AI-led gains of recent years.
“It’s unclear at this point whether this is just a breather or a full rotation,” said Paul Ticu at Calamos Investments. “Markets are still trying to figure out a direction.”
The Russell 2000 index of smaller US companies has beaten the Nasdaq 100 by around 4 percentage points in the first five sessions of 2026, the second-best outperformance to start a year on record.
Investors will be on guard for US jobs data set to land later Friday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg anticipate 70,000 new positions were added to the US economy in December, slightly higher than the prior month, while the unemployment rate is expected to fall to 4.5%.
Jobs data will help illuminate the path ahead for US interest rates. Money markets are pricing in at least two quarter-point cuts from the Fed in 2026. The Supreme Court is also poised to decide the fate of most of Trump’s tariffs as soon as Friday. Hundreds of companies have already lined up hoping to recoup their share of the billions of dollars in duties paid so far.
In other corners of the market, the dollar held on to its gains from the prior session, while oil extended its gain as investors monitored developments in Venezuela and Iran. Silver retreated further from its record struck earlier in the week, while gold was steady.
Mortgage bonds rose and home-lender stocks rallied after Trump’s move to bring down the cost of housing. There are roughly $9 trillion worth of agency mortgage bonds outstanding.
