The Japan Times - Asian stocks extend gains but US concerns hit dollar, boost gold

Investors are also preparing for next week's Federal Reserve meeting following data that had been broadly in line with forecasts and after prosecutors issued subpoenas against boss Jerome Powell threatening a criminal indictment, raising fears over the bank's independence.

Sentiment has picked up over the past two days after the US president pulled back from his warning to hit several European nations with levies over their opposition to Washington taking over the Danish autonomous territory.

In light of the row-back, Asian stocks extended Thursday's gains, with Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, Sydney, Seoul and Singapore leading the gains.

That followed a second successive advance on Wall Street.

However, Trump's latest salvo against global allies -- and after his ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro this month -- revived trade war fears and uncertainty about US investment, putting downward pressure on the dollar this week.

And analysts said there was no guarantee that Europe-US relations had improved durably.

Analysts said the Republican's willingness to threaten tariffs over any issue had rattled confidence on trading floors, weighing on the dollar and boosting safe haven metals.

In early Asian trade, gold rallied to a fresh peak above $4,967 an ounce while silver touched more than $99.

With the Greenland crisis over for now, investors turned their attention to the US economy, which grew slightly more than originally estimated in the third quarter thanks to a boost in exports and investment, according to data delayed by last year's government shutdown.

Separate figures showed jobless numbers dipped and inflation settled slightly lower to where it was before the shutdown.

The bank is tipped to hold interest rates, having cut them in the previous three meetings.

The gathering comes against the backdrop of a deepening row between Trump and Powell, who the president has lambasted for not cutting borrowing costs quickly enough.

And the pressure ramped up on the latter this month when the administration issued subpoenas hinting at a possible criminal probe into a $2.5 billion renovation of the Fed headquarters.

"The bar to a further cut is too high and (Trump appointee) Steve Miran notwithstanding the Federal Open Market Committee are likely to err on the side of a hold, which will inevitably incur the wrath of president Trump," wrote MCH Market Insights' Michael Hewson, referring to the Fed's decision-makers.

"The problem for the president is that in being so belligerent towards Powell, he is making it harder for the Fed to even consider cutting rates over concerns that they are succumbing to political influence on their decision-making process."

Fiona Cincotta at City Index added: "Sticky inflation and solid growth provide little incentive for the Fed to cut rates further for now. These data points support the Fed's wait-and-see stance."

The meeting also comes as Trump considers candidates to replace Powell when his term comes to an end in May. The president told reporters Thursday that "I have somebody that I think will be very good but I'm not going to reveal it".

"It's someone very respected, very, very well known, and will do, I think, a very good job," he added.

In company news, Japanese giant Nintendo jumped as much as 6.9 percent after gaming data firm Circana said its Switch 2 console led the US hardware market in unit and dollar sales in 2025.

The "Switch 2 remains the fastest selling video game hardware platform in tracked history", Circana's Mat Piscatella wrote on BlueSky.

Next week's US earnings calendar is packed with results from Apple, Microsoft, Boeing, Tesla, Meta and other corporate giants. There will also be a Federal Reserve monetary policy decision.

- Key figures at around 0250 GMT -

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 53,870.35 (break)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.5 percent at 26,750.74

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 4,128.01

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1750 from $1.1751 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3498 from $1.3500

Dollar/yen: UP at 158.60 yen from 158.39 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.04 pence from 87.05 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.6 percent at $59.73 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.6 percent at $64.45 per barrel

New York - Dow: UP 0.6 percent at 49,384.01 (close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 10,150.05 (close)

K.Tanaka--JT