HONG KONG: Asian shares were mixed on Friday following a retreat on Wall Street as a US Treasury Department plan to boost its government debt buybacks had only limited capacity to calm markets.
US futures edged higher.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.2 per cent to 66,080.25. South Korea's Kospi climbed 0.9 per cent to 6,914.09. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.7 per cent to 25,888.36, while the Shanghai Composite index was unchanged at 3,903.81.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was trading 0.3 per cent lower at 9,053.90. Taiwan's Taiex gained 0.4 per cent, while India's Sensex was 0.1 per cent lower.
The Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it will at least double the size of its planned purchases of longer-term government debt, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signalled on Thursday that the repurchase programme could be larger.
The announcement temporarily brought down government bond yields, which have been elevated under concerns about high inflation partly caused by the war in Iran and rising US government debt. Higher yields tend to slow the broader economy due to increased borrowing costs across the financial system and can undercut stock prices.
But analysts said they expect the effect on bond yields to be temporary. The yield of the US 10-year Treasury was at around 4.71 per cent early Friday, up from nearly 4.64 per cent on Thursday and back to around the level before the Treasury department's announcement.
The 30-year Treasury yield was at about 5.26 per cent, up from 5.18 per cent on Thursday.
In Asia, bond yields also rose again. Japan's 10-year government bond yield, which had been trading near 30-year highs, rose to 2.88 per cent from around 2.83 per cent on Thursday.
The latest climb in bond yields has weighed on share prices. On Thursday, Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 lost 0.9 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.3 per cent, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 1 per cent.
In other dealings early Friday, oil prices fell slightly, even as the US stepped up its economic threats toward Iran while limited progress has been made toward de-escalation of tensions between Washington and Tehran.
Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.2 per cent to USD 93.64 a barrel. It was trading at roughly USD 72 per barrel before the start of the war. Benchmark US crude was down 0.3 per cent to USD 86.59 a barrel.
The US dollar fell to 159.01 Japanese yen from 159.05 yen. The euro was trading at USD 1.1694, up from USD 1.1678.