Mount Fuji and buildings in the Shinjuku district are reflected on a table at an observation deck in Tokyo, Japan, on December 24, 2013.
Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets opened higher Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday formalizing a lower Japanese auto import tariff of 15%, down from 27.5%.
The order also confirms the agreement for $550 billion of Japanese investments in U.S. projects.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.39% and the Topix added 0.86% after Japan’s July household spending rose 1.4% year over year. South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.26% while the Kosdaq jumped 0.35%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.58%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was on course to open lower, with the futures contract at 25,021, compared with its Thursday close at 25,058.51.
Malaysian and Indonesian markets were closed for a holiday.
U.S. equity futures were little changed ahead of the August jobs report due out Friday stateside.
Overnight stateside, all three key benchmarks rose on hopes of a favorable jobs report that supports a Federal Reserve rate cut chance.
The broad market S&P 500 finished up 0.83% at 6,502.08, while the Nasdaq Composite settled up 0.98% at 21,707.69. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 350.06 points, or 0.77%, at 45,621.29. It was S&P 500′s 21st record close so far this year.
— CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Sarah Min contributed to this report.
