Asian indices mostly struggled to open on a positive note on Thursday following the threats of U.S. President Donald Trump on closing down the government. This led investors to safe-haven buying and recovery of the greenback.
Last Tuesday, Donald Trump said that he is willing to shut down the government of United States to secure funds that are needed for the border he proposed to separate Mexico form U.S. He repeatedly promised he would build a wall that Mexico would pay for, which Mexico insists on paying. That was part of his plan to talk about illegal immigration.
The president is also skeptic whether the deal could be secured on the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) renegotiation amidst the rally in Arizona. Trump believes that all of this would end up on eliminating NAFTA. In reaction to the news, stocks in the stateside were brought to the negative territory.
Looking on Asian indices, Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 index edged down more than 0.26 percent on Thursday’s opening bell and the Aussie benchmark ASX 200 index inched lower by 0.04 percent after it was given a lift by its financials and utilities sub-indexes. However across the Korean Strait, the Kospi index rose about 0.17 percent in early trade.
In other news, the Galaxy Note 8 model by Samsung Electronics was launched in New York last Wednesday. Samsung was forced to recall its previous model following a battery problem that leads to catching fire after overheating. The shares of Samsung fell as low as 0.21 percent on Thursday.