Friday's Final Takeaways: China Stocks Fall After Trump-Xi Summit, Japanese Yen Adds Strength

Sam Vadas (0:02)

Welcome back to Market on Close. I'm Sam Vadas at the New York Stock Exchange. Just some final thoughts on today's session, something we haven't checked in on yet. Chinese stocks came under notable pressure today. FXI, K-Web, PDD, Alibaba, or Loa, after a tough night for Hong Kong stocks. And it came after the Trump-Xi summit really failed to yield any major deliverables. We've got no joint statement, even though expectations for any breakthroughs were very low in this market. The most significant news was this modest extension of the trade truce, which buys the two sides more time until January. President Xi reiterated his position on Taiwan and said the US and China should also work together to prevent the misuse of AI. But while big on pomp and small on policy, markets are taking some comfort, at least in short-term stability for now.

Sticking with Asia, the Japanese yen strengthening today after some official jawboning, Tokyo authorities disclosed some of the concern expressed about the weak currency during a meeting between Prime Minister Sanai Takeiichi and President Trump earlier this week. The detailed account does go to show the shared concern in Japan and here in the US over the yen slide since the rare joint intervention a couple of months ago. The remarks helped lift the currency against the dollar after it had started to drift closely towards that 160 level again. Let's closely watch as that has really been in the line in the sand for Tokyo authorities to step in previously, but we were trading around 157 today.

Looking ahead to next week, as we've been discussing throughout the course of the program, it's going to be a busy one with a lot of top tier economic data. We've got jobs, we've got JOLTS, ADP and the jobs on Friday. The PCE, the Fed's preferred gauge of inflation, plenty of Fed speak hitting the tape. ISM manufacturing PMI, as KG pointed out, that's going to be a big one. Also look at consumer confidence. On the earnings front, we've got two big names. We're waiting for Micron. That's going to be a major one as far as the next test for the tech trade, which has held up pretty well this week, particularly across semiconductor chip stocks. We're also going to be hearing from Nike. Let's see if we get any update on the progress on this turnaround, which analysts even won today said is still taking longer than anticipated. That's going to do it here for us on Market On Close. Thanks so much. I'm Sam Vadas and on behalf of Marlee Caden, be sure to download the Schwab Network app available in the Apple App Store. Tune in 24-7 on schwabnetwork.com. Have a wonderful weekend. We will see you on Monday.