After Shinzo Abe, Japan’s Former Prime Minister, was Shot in Nara, the Stock Market Fell

Abstract

• On reports that former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had been shot in the head, Japan’s stock market lost most of its gains and the yen climbed.
• The nonfarm payrolls statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics will be released Friday in the United States.
• As U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation, European markets surged.

Friday saw Japan’s stock market and the Japanese yen rise after word broke that former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had been shot in the head.

The Nikkei 225 ended the day at 26,517.19, an increase of 0.1 percent, while the Topix index rose by 0.27 percent. Prior to news of Abe’s shooting, both indices had gained more than 1% earlier in the session.

Yen-to-Dollar rates last traded at 135.99. It had been trading at 135.9 cents earlier in the day.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Abe was in a severe state and called the scenario “the harshest imaginable words,” according to Japanese media.

While an election is taking place in the middle of it, he called it a “despicable and barbarous deed that went happened.”

According to Reuters, Abe is still a major player in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. While campaigning for other LDP members in Nara ahead of Japan’s upper house elections on Sunday, he was speaking at a public event in the city.

Download App for Android

Download App for iOS

Asian and Pacific Economies

Other than that, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.45 percent to close at 6,678.

The Kospi gained 0.7 percent to 2,350.61 points, while the Kosdaq gained 1.12 points to 766.48 points.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index finished the day with a gain of 0.12 percent.

Mainland Markets in China reversed direction and closed down. At 3,356.08, the Shanghai Composite closed down 0.25 percent, while at 12,857.13, the Shenzhen Component was down 0.61 percent.

But there are still concerns about rising costs and a decline in the economy.

DBS Chief Investment Officer Hou Wey Fook told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday that “the danger out there would of course be the increased inflation and on top of that, there is also the risk of coming recession.”

The nonfarm payrolls statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics will be released Friday in the United States. a Dow Jones poll found that economists predict 250,000 new jobs to be created in June. Those numbers are smaller than the 390,000 jobs created in May.

SoftBank said on Thursday that Rajeev Misra will step down as CEO of SoftBank Global Advisors, but he will continue in two other roles.. SoftBank Group’s shares gained by 0.22 percent in the Asia-Pacific region.

In the United States, key stock indexes climbed overnight.

Closed at 31,384.55, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 346.87 points, or 1.12 percent. The S&P 500 rose 1.5% to 3,902.62 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.288% to 11,621.35.

Oil and Currency

It was at 107.322, according to the US dollar index, which measures the greenback’s value against a basket of other currencies.

After the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to hike interest rates on Tuesday, the Australian dollar was trading at $0.6818.

As a result of the announcement that China and Australia are due to meet for the first time in nearly three years, Carol Kong, a senior associate at Commonwealth Bank, said that the Australian dollar rose.

In a Friday post, she said, “However, AUD gains will be limited if China remains committed to its zero-Covid policy and the global economy continues to lose pace.”

In the afternoon trade in Asia, oil futures moved in the wrong direction. At $102.49 a barrel, U.S. crude was down 0.23 percent, while Brent crude was up 0.14 percent.