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Asia cautious on U.S. power chaos
(CNN) -- Asian financial markets are reacting cautiously Friday to a massive power outage that is affecting much of the northeast of the United States, including New York's financial district. Tokyo's market opened higher, with the Nikkei cracking the 10,000 mark in the first 30 minutes of trade. But it has eased to end the morning session half a percent lower at 9858.43. The broader Topix is virtually flat, down 0.07 percent to 973.34. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index touched its high for the year of 10,431 in morning trade, but also has eased a little since. Taiwan is about 1 percent higher, Australia is flat and there are modest falls for Singapore and New Zealand. South Korea's market is closed for a holiday. Investors in Asia are also factoring in news of the capture in Thailand of the terrorist known as Hambali, and the revelation he may have been planning an attack on the APEC summit in October. (Full story) Japanese techs are mixed at midday Friday, with NEC and Toshiba up almost 3 percent, but falls of more than 1 percent for Kyocera and Canon. Sony is down 0.8 percent to 3690 yen. Japan Telecom is 2.2 percent higher on a report its sale to Ripplewood will likely take place next week. (Full story) Mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo, the market's biggest stock, is down 0.7 percent to 291,000 yen. There are falls, too in the banking sector, with SMFG and Resona in the red. Mizuho and UFJ are both flat, while MTFG is up 2.5 percent. Automakers are mixed, with gains for Nissan and Toyota but a fall of 0.8 percent for Honda. Asian markets have taken comfort from comments late Thursday by U.S. President George W. Bush that there was no suggestion the power failure was related to a terrorist attack. The U.S. power outage came shortly after the New York stock market closed for the day. There were modest gains for the Dow and the Nasdaq, helped by data suggesting a recovery is on the way. (Full story) The New York Stock Exchange said it planned to open for normal trading on Friday and that no data from Thursday's trading session had been lost, according to Reuters. Earlier, European markets closed at seven-month highs, while the major Asian markets of Japan and South Korea also finished Thursday on a high. The dollar is trading slightly easier at 118.874 yen in Asia on Friday. Against the euro, it is at $1.260. U.S. Treasury prices jumped on news of the power outage, with traders reporting that the 10-year note rose as much as 1 1/2 points in the after-hours session. S&P 500 futures were off 3.4 points. But the damage likely would have been worse if the power had gone out during the regular trading session. Traders in Asia say Hambali's capture is a coup for the United States and will help market sentiment. They also say the economic impact of the North American power outages will be limited. Hambali was the acting chief of Jemaah Islamiyah, a terrorist group in Southeast Asia linked to al Qaeda. Investigators believe that Hambali, also known as Riduan Isamuddin, was plotting an attack against the upcoming Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, to be held in Thailand in October. Elsewhere in Asia, Taiwan's Taiex is up 1.1 percent to 5495.96. Traders say techs are up in reaction to earlier data on U.S. retail sales and unemployment figures. Chip foundry TSMC, the market's biggest stock, is up 1.7 percent and smaller rival UMC is 1.6 percent higher. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng is near its high for the year at 10,321. Leading bank HSBC is up 1 percent to HK$101.00. Australia's S&P/ASX200 is virtually flat, down 0.06 percent to 3148.6. Market heavyweight News Corp is up 1 percent to A$12.36, close to its one-year high of A$13.02 seen last December. Singapore's Straits Times index is down 0.45 percent to 1591.81 and New Zealand's Top 50 is off 0.56 percent to 2192.47.
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