By Kevin Buckland
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese stocks jumped on Friday, supported by the dollar’s surge against the yen, after a U.S. trade deal with Britain fuelled hopes of progress in tariff talks with other countries.
Bitcoin soared to the highest since January and U.S. crude ticked up after a more than 3% surge on Thursday, when President Donald Trump announced the agreement with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer – the first in the month since Trump started a 90-day pause on trade tariffs to allow room for negotiations.
At the same time, concerns that the limited trade agreement with London may not provide much of a blueprint for additional deals cooled optimism around the outcome of Sino-U.S. trade talks set for Saturday in Switzerland.
Mainland blue chips started the day 0.2% lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.2%.
Japan’s Nikkei and broader Topix each climbed about 1.2%, with the Topix set to extend its winning streak to an 11th session, the longest run since October 2017.
Taiwan’s equity benchmark advanced 1%, while Australian stocks added 0.4%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was broadly flat.
“The deal between the U.S. and UK was more style over substance,” said Kyle Rodda, a senior financial markets analyst at Capital.com.
“However, it feeds the narrative that the U.S. is looking to bang-out rapid fire trade deals and reduce tariffs – at the margins – and other trade barriers,” Rodda said.
“Constructive language and statements of intent will likely be enough to drive stocks higher off the back of the U.S.-China trade talks.”
Trump pushed back against seeing the UK deal as a template for other negotiations.
The “general terms” agreement leaves in place a 10% tariff on goods imported from the UK but lowers prohibitive U.S. duties on UK car exports. Britain agreed to lower its tariffs to 1.8% from 5.1% and provide greater access to U.S. goods.
Last week, Trump said he has “potential” trade deals with India, South Korea and Japan.
Nymex crude ticked up 0.2% to $60.02 per barrel early on Friday, building on the previous day’s 3.2% surge. Brent crude added 0.3% to $63 per barrel, following Thursday’s 2.8% rally.
Safe-haven gold continued its slide, weakening 0.5% to around 3,288 an ounce, after dropping 3.6% in the past two sessions.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the currency against six major peers, edged up 0.1% to reach a one-month peak at 100.77.
The euro sagged to a one-month trough at $1.12105, and sterling slipped to a three-week low of $1.32205.
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