China trade data, Singapore GDP, currencies, tune-ups

Asian stocks rose slightly on Friday afternoon, with statistics showing that the Singapore economy was contracting much more than expected in the second quarter.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 0.12%, while the Topix index lost 0.14%. In South Korea, the Kospi grew by 0.24%.

The Australian S & P / ASX 200 fell slightly, with most sectors slipping. Overall, the largest index of MSCI shares in Asia Pacific outside Japan gained 0.11%.

Mainland shares recovered from their previous slide and rose at the end of the morning session, with the Shanghai Composite up 0.46% and the Shenzhen Composite up 0.478%. The Shenzhen component also grew 0.66%, while the Hang Seng Hong Kong index rose 0.5%.

Investors will then be looking for Chinese trade data for June to assess the impact of the ongoing trade war between Beijing and Washington.

Singapore's gross domestic product declined 3.4% between April and June compared to the previous quarter, on an annualized and seasonally adjusted basis, according to preliminary data released on Friday. This largely missed the expectations of a 0.1% increase quarter-over-quarter against a Reuters survey.

Compared to the previous year, GDP grew 0.1% in the second quarter – the slowest year-on-year growth since the second quarter of 2009 – which is also below the forecast of a 1% expansion. , 1% in the Reuters poll.

Despite the poorer-than-expected data print, Singaporean markets recovered from their fall, with the Straits Times index trading 0.23% higher in the morning.

"It's really bad," Sian Fenner, chief economist for Oxford Economics for the Asia region, told CNBC's Squawk Box on Friday. "We were looking for a negative contraction (quarter-on-quarter), while manufacturing numbers were so low that export figures also contracted, but that was a big shortfall."

"Singapore is really flirting with the recession now," Fenner said.

Overnight, Wall Street, the title of 30 titles, crossed the 27,000 for the first time in its history, adding 227.88 points to close at 27 088.08. The S & P 500 also recorded a record close, up 0.2% to 2,999.91. The Nasdaq Composite, however, slipped 0.1% to close its trading day in the United States to 8,196.04.

The measures were taken while the US Federal Reserve was expecting a cut in interest rates at its next monetary policy meeting in July. Market expectations for a rate cut later this month are 100%, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.

The US dollar index, which compares the greenback to a basket of peers, was 96.933 after hitting a high of 97.116

The Japanese yen traded at 108.40 against the dollar after losing its lower level to 108.0 in the previous session, while the Australian dollar changed hands to 0.6994 dollar after being traded at less than $ 0.695 earlier in the week.

Oil prices rose in the afternoon, after trading hours in Asia, the Brent international benchmark futures contract rose 0.62% to $ 66.93 a barrel and contracts futures for US crude rose 0.56% to $ 60.54 a barrel.

Here is an overview of the data that will be released today:

• Singapore: retail sales for the month of May at 1 pm HK / NAS
• India: industrial production and inflation at 20:00 HK / NAS
• China: New Loans and Growth in Loans Outstanding

– Reuters and Fred Imbert of CNBC contributed to this report.