Asian equities fluctuate before Trump-Xi meeting

On Friday, Asian equities fluctuated due to the fact that market participants were on edge before a decisive weekend meeting between the American and Chinese leaders that could determine the course of an escalating trade conflict over the next year.

As a matter of fact, in early trade, MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific equities seesawed between positive and negative territory because more evidence of a deceleration in China impacted market sentiment. By the way, last it rallied less than 0.1% and has gone up by 2.7% for the week so far, mostly reflecting a rebound from a recent abrupt sell-off.

Meanwhile, in Japan, the Nikkei managed to ascend by up to 0.4%. Korean stocks sank by 0.2% right after the country's key financial institution raised its policy interest rate as expected.

As for Chinese blue-chips, they leapt by 0.5% notwithstanding a survey disclosing China's factory surge stalled for the first time for more than two years in November.

The poor manufacturing surge backed hopes that China will roll out more economic support measures. The given factor has recently underpinned Chinese shares.

Investors are currently closely watching planned negotiations between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his American rival over the weekend.

In addition to this, S&P e-mini equities slipped by 0.06%, pointing to a dismal Wall Street trading session on Friday following a mixed overnight performance.

Besides this, the Dow Jones Industrial Average went down by 0.11%. The S&P 500 declined by 0.22%, while the Nasdaq Composite went down by 0.25% on Thursday.

The yield on two-year American Treasury notes accounted for 2.8066%, slipping from 2.813%.

The evergreen buck slumped by about 0.07% versus the Japanese yen hitting 113.39. Meanwhile, the common currency stood still at $1.1392. Additionally, the USD index was intact sticking with 96.769.