Asia's leading stock exchanges went in different directions on the last trading day of the week in a situation where dovish signals from the Fed are weighed against Donald Trump's unpredictable tariff policy.
In Tokyo, the important Nikkei 225 index had increased by 0.4 percent at lunchtime, while the broader Topix index grew 0.7.
In Hong Kong, there was a more gloomy mood when the Hang Seng index fell 2 percent.
The same gloomy mood also characterized the composite indexes in Shanghai and Shenzhen, which fell 0.9 and 1.4 percent, respectively.
