Shares were mostly lower in Asia on Friday after Wall Street extended a rally into a third day and oil prices pushed higher, surpassing USD 105 per barrel. Tokyo and Sydney advanced while Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul declined.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for more help for his country after days of bombardment of civilian sites in multiple cities over the past few days. The war, and plans for President Joe Biden to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping later Friday were among the uncertainties overhanging markets.
The White House said conversation will center on "managing competition between our two countries as well as Russia's war against Ukraine and other issues of mutual concern." Wrapping up a two-day meeting, the Bank of Japan opted to keep its monetary policy unchanged, with its benchmark interest rate at minus 0.1 per cent. Japan's central bank has been keeping interest rates ultra low and pumping tens of billions of dollars into world's third largest economy for years, trying to spur faster growth. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.1 per cent to 26,667.23 and S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney gained 0.3 per cent, to 7,275.30. But Hong Kong's Hang Seng sank 2.6 per cent to 20,952.53 after barreling higher for two days after Chinese leaders promised to provide more support for economy and markets, suggesting Beijing might temper
its crackdowns on technology and real estate companies. The Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.3 per cent to 3,205.90. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 climbed 1.2 per cent on Thursday, closing at 4,411.67, after surging more than 2 per cent in each of prior two days for its best back-to-back performance in nearly two years.
Big swings in markets have become norm as investors struggle to handicap what will happen to economy and world's already high inflation because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, higher interest rates from central banks around the world and renewed COVID-19 worries in various hotspots.