Asian stocks open mixed as the week wraps up

Asian stocks performance varied today, with the Japanese, Australian, New Zealand stocks and the South Korean Kospi rising, while Chinese stocks and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell, following important economic data releases amid the trade war concerns.

The Japanese economy released its GDP preliminary reading, which grew by 0.4% in the second quarter, higher than expectations of 0.1%, while lower than 0.6% in the first quarter, followed by Reserve Bank of Australia governor, Philip Lowe, testimony before the House of Representatives' Standing Committee on Economics in Canberra, in addition to the release of the RBA last meeting minutes.

Leading to the release of Chinese inflation data which came mixed, with the reading of the CPI y/y, which rose by 2.8% from 2.7% June, while the PPI y/y fell by 0.3% compared to the previous reading and forecasts for stability at zero.

Yesterday Washington decided to ban US companies from signing contracts with Huawei as well as other Chinese companies starting from the 13th of this month, while some exemptions may be granted in certain circumstances for up to 2 years by a federal agency head or the director of National Security Service, and Beijing criticized that decision calling it unfair.

Bearing in mind that the US has criticized China after the yuan's sharp drop below the 7 per dollar mark, which led the US to designate China as a currency manipulator to take competitive advantages in export at the expense of the US, while the People's Bank of China Chairman, Yi Gang, denied these allegations and the currency war.

This comes after the recent escalation of the trade war, as the Chinese Commerce Ministry ordered state-owned companies to stop purchasing US agricultural products in response to US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to impose 10% tariffs on Chinese to the US worth $300 billion. The decision is supposed to be effective starting from September 1st,

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce stated in the beginning of this week that tariffs on US agricultural products purchased after Aug. 3rd would not be excluded. while the president of the People's Bank of China, Yi Gang also said that China would not manipulate its currency to further escalate the trade war with the US.

The Japanese stocks rose today, with Topix rising by 0.51% or 7.62 points to 1,506.28, And Nikkei 225 rose by 0.74% or 152.40 points to 20,745.75.

Chinese stocks on the other hand saw a decline, as the CSI 300 fell by 0.51% or 18.54 points to 3,650.75, and the Shanghai Composite fell by 0.25% or 6.88 points to 2,787.67.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell by 0.48% (124.94 points) to 25,995.83, while South Korea's Kospi rose 1.14% (21.98 points) to 1,942.59.

On the other hand, the Australian S&P/ASX 200 rose by 0.17% (11.45 points) to 6,579.60, and the New Zealand NZX 50 rose by 0.10% (10.86 points) to 10,885.15.