Asia-Pacific markets open higher after Trump formalizes lower Japanese auto tariffsnomadictrails

Asia-Pacific markets opened higher Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday formalizing a lower Japanese auto import tariff of 15%, down from 27.5%.

The order also confirmed the agreement for $550 billion of Japanese investments in U.S. projects.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.39% and the Topix added 0.86% after thge country’s July household spending rose 1.4% year over year.

South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.26%, while the Kosdaq jumped 0.35%.

Several Asian chip stocks jumped after Trump said Thursday stateside that his administration plans to slap tariffs on semiconductor imports from firms that do not move production to the United States. The comments came ahead of Trump’s dinner with top technology CEOs at the renovated Rose Garden.

Advantest gained 2.99%, while Lasertec popped 3.24%. TSMC climbed 1.29%. Shares of South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix also rose over 3%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.58%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was on course to open lower, with the futures contract at 25,021, compared with its Thursday close at 25,058.51.

Malaysian and Indonesian markets were closed for a holiday.

U.S. equity futures in early Asia hours were little changed ahead of the August jobs report due out Friday stateside.

Overnight stateside, all three key benchmarks rose on hopes of a favorable jobs report that supports a Federal Reserve rate cut chance.

The broad market S&P 500 finished up 0.83% at 6,502.08, while the Nasdaq Composite settled up 0.98% at 21,707.69. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 350.06 points, or 0.77%, at 45,621.29. It was S&P 500′s 21st record close so far this year.

— CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Sarah Min contributed to this report.