Asian stocks inch higher, tracking Wall Street lull

Elaine Kurtenbach, The Associated Press</span>
Published Friday, December 22, 2017 1:09AM EST

TOKYO - Share prices edged higher Friday morning in Asia, tracking modest gains on Wall Street. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index added 0.1 per cent to 22,893.06 following Cabinet approval of a budget plan that includes record defence outlays and an extra 2.9 trillion yen ($25.6 billion) in stimulus spending.

KEEPING SCORE: Hong Kong's Hang Seng index added 0.4 per cent to 29,473.45 and the Kospi in South Korea climbed 0.5 per cent to 2,442.66. The Shanghai Composite index was up 0.1 per cent at 3,302.47 and the S&P ASX 200 in Australia gained 0.2 per cent to 6,069.70. Shares in Southeast Asia were mixed.

WALL STREET: Banks and energy companies led U.S. stocks higher in subdued trading Thursday, erasing modest losses from the day before. Sentiment was brightened by strong economic growth data. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.2 per cent to 2,684.57 and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.2 per cent to 24,782.29. The Nasdaq composite added 0.1 per cent to 6,965.36 and the Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks picked up 0.5 per cent, to 1,547.11.

U.S. DATA: The Commerce Department reported the U.S. economy grew at a solid 3.2 per cent annual rate in the third quarter. That was slightly slower than previously estimated, but follows a 3.1 per cent gain in GDP for the second quarter. Combined, the two quarters represent the best back-to-back quarterly growth rates in three years.

JAPAN DEFENCE SPENDING: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet on Friday approved a 5.2 trillion yen ($46 billion) defence budget to bolster ballistic missile defence capability amid escalating threats from North Korea. It would be the sixth annual increase under Abe, who ended a decade of military budget cuts after taking office in 2012. The defence spending is part of a 97.7 trillion ($860 billion) national budget for 2018, also the biggest ever.

ANALYST'S PERSPECTIVE: "Ahead of the Christmas holidays, Asia markets look poised to find moderate upsides though low volume is expected to prevail in the day," Jingyi Pan of IG said in a commentary.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude gave up 18 cents to $58.18 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added 27 cents to settle at $58.36 a barrel on Thursday. Brent crude, which is used to price international oils, lost 14 cents to $64.29 per barrel. It gained 34 cents to close at $64.90 a barrel in London.

CURRENCIES: The dollar was almost unchanged at 113.32 Japanese yen. The euro weakened to $1.1852 from $1.1875.

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