Asia markets poised to climb after Wall Street falls on Fed Chair Powell's comments; China data in focus

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A view of the night scenery in Shanghai, China

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Asia-Pacific markets appeared set to rebound on Friday, breaking ranks with Wall Street after U.S. Federal Reserve Jerome Powell said the central bank does not need to be "in a hurry to lower rates."

Speaking in Dallas, Powell pointed out that strong U.S. economic growth will allow policymakers to take their time in deciding how far and how fast they should lower interest rates.

In Asia, investors will be assessing key economic data from Japan and China on Friday, with Japan set to release third-quarter GDP numbers.

China will announce October figures for retail sales, industrial output and the urban unemployment.

Japan's Nikkei 225 was set to climb, with the futures contract in Chicago at 38,870 and its counterpart in Osaka at 38,990 against the index's last close of 38,535.7.

Futures for Hong Kong's Hang Seng index stood at 19,464, also pointing to a positive open compared to the HSI's close of 19,435.81.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 started the day up 0.3%.

Overnight in the U.S., all three indexes fell, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 0.47%.

The S&P 500 fell 0.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite pulled back 0.64%.

So-called "Trump trades" also lost steam as the market rally cooled. Tesla tumbled 5.8%, while the small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 dropped more than 1%, underperforming the major averages.

— CNBC's Brian Evans and Sarah Min contributed to this report.

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'Postelection exuberance' helped speed up record year for ETFs, State Street's Bartolini says

People cast their ballots at Joslyn Park vote center while voters standing in line are visible in the window reflection on November 5, 2024 in Santa Monica, California.

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The U.S. ETF industry set its year-to-date inflow record this week, helped by "postelection exuberance," according to Matt Bartolini, head of Americas ETF research at State Street Global Advisors.

"Heading into the election, ETF flows were already on pace to break records. What happened was the market environment turned and went significantly exuberant. ... All of a sudden, there was a rush of assets into ETFs from a wide range of investors," Bartolini said.

Outside flows into broad index funds, Bartolini also pointed to the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) as a fund that has benefited from the market response to the election. The fund has more than $1.1 billion of net inflows over the past week, according to FactSet.

Bartolini also said that he has Dec. 9 circled as the date for inflows for the U.S. ETF industry to hit $1 trillion this year.

— Jesse Pound

Trump trade stocks extend losses on Thursday

Key stocks that are viewed as pillars of the so-called Trump trade pulled back further on Thursday.

Shares of the Trump Media & Technology Group slipped nearly 8%. Stock in the incoming president's social media company have shed nearly 16% this week.

Stock in Tesla, which saw shares soar in the wake of Donald Trump's election victory last week, moved lower by 4%.

One key component of the Trump trade bucked the trend. The dollar index advanced 0.08% and reached its highest level in over a year earlier on Thursday.

— Brian Evans

Dollar index reaches 1-year high

The dollar index gained 0.3% Thursday at 106.79, its highest level since Nov. 1, 2023.

The greenback also strengthened 0.2% against the yen at 156.25, the strongest level since July 23.

Since President-elect Donald Trump won the election, the dollar has appreciated 2.8% and 2.1% against the yen and the Chinese yuan. The euro and the pound sterling have both weakened 3.6% and 2.8% against the greenback, respectively.

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