Asian stocks consolidate their weekly gains

On Friday, Asian stock markets managed to consolidate their weekly profits due to the fact that China-US negotiations generated a lot of headlines, although no conclusions, while caution ahead of American payrolls as well as a holiday in China affected volatility.

Eventually, MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific stocks slumped by 0.1%, although it was off its highest value since the end of August. For the week, the index was still up 1.8%, while for the year it was up 13%.

Japan's Nikkei headed north by 0.3%, soaring 2.8% for the week. As for E-Mini futures for the S&P 500, they managed to gain 0.1%.

Experts pointed out that stock markets have run fast and hard from their December minimums, and they’re vulnerable to a short-term rebound. Nevertheless, valuations are quite good, surge is anticipated to improve into the second half of 2019, fiscal and monetary policies have become more supportive of financial markets, while the trade war threat is weakening.

As Xinhua informed, China’s President Xi Jinping had told that progress was achieved and also called for an early conclusion of talks.

On Thursday, American leader told that a deal could be officially announced in four weeks, although warned it would be hard to let China trade with America if remaining issues weren’t tackled.

Market participants are also waiting on the American payrolls report, expected to rebound by 180,000 in March after February's distorted 20,000 ascend. Furthermore, traders will also closely watch hourly earnings that rallied to 3.4% in February, which appears to be the fastest tempo since April 2009.

Expectations for a solid number were underpinned by data on jobless claims that headed south to a 49-year minimum the previous week, indicating sustained labor market strength.