Asian equities traded in tight ranges Friday as the uncertainty around Donald Trump’s next trade war salvo weighed on sentiment across global markets.

Japan’s stock market opened higher, but South Korean shares fell and equity index futures for Hong Kong were down. US futures edged higher after the S&P 500 closed slightly down Thursday, a sign that investors are struggling to find a clear sense of direction.

The sluggish moves stalled a nascent rebound in global stocks earlier in the week, underscoring investor jitters in the run-up to an increase of US tariffs. Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said both broad reciprocal tariffs and certain additional sector-specific tariffs would come into force on April 2.

In theory, investors should have been able to get a clear sense of direction this week, with policy meetings by the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England all providing signals. But these central banks offered little clarity about the likely state of the global economy after the next round of tariffs, exacerbating a sense among investors that the world is flying blind into April 2.

“While the bottom of the recent correction is likely in, we probably haven’t seen the end of volatility,” said Daniel Skelly, head of Morgan Stanley’s Wealth Management Market Research & Strategy Team. “Policy uncertainty hasn’t disappeared, and the market remains sensitive to sentiment shifts.”

Investors also had earnings to digest, yet another mixed signal for the market. In late hours, FedEx Corp. — an economic barometer — sank after cutting its profit outlook. But Micron Technology Inc. gave an upbeat sales forecast and Nike Inc.’s results surpassed analysts’ expectations.

Existing home sales in the US topped estimates, while initial jobless claims, a measure of unemployment, were in line with expectations in a sign of a healthy labor market.

Treasuries were largely unchanged Thursday, and an index of the dollar was roughly flat. The yen was slightly stronger early Friday after core CPI came higher than estimates. The pound held losses after the Bank of England voted to stand pat on rates.

Weakness on Wall Street also comes ahead of a big test later Friday when $4.5 billion of options contracts expire in an event known as triple witching that often stokes volatility.

“We will go up and down as policy uncertainty continues,” Michael Rosen, chief investment officer at Angeles Investments, said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “Investor sentiment is going to be very volatile, and that will be reflected in the market.”

Elsewhere, revenue for PDD Holdings Inc., which runs the Temu online marketplace, grew slower than expected after intensifying domestic competition and US tariffs crimped its expansion.

The European Union this week delayed a proposed tariff on American whiskey. The trading bloc is ready talk to Trump before making further decisions on retaliatory tariffs, Ireland’s deputy prime minister said.

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

  • S&P 500 futures rose 0.2% as of 9:31 a.m. Tokyo time

  • Hang Seng futures fell 0.5%

  • Nikkei 225 futures (OSE) rose 0.3%

  • Japan’s Topix rose 0.3%

  • Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was little changed

  • Euro Stoxx 50 futures were little changed

Currencies

  • The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed

  • The euro was little changed at $1.0853

  • The Japanese yen was little changed at 148.92 per dollar

  • The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.2525 per dollar

  • The Australian dollar was little changed at $0.6302

  • The British pound was little changed at $1.2965

Cryptocurrencies

  • Bitcoin fell 0.3% to $84,270.54

  • Ether rose 0.2% to $1,983.09

Bonds

  • The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.24%

  • Japan’s 10-year yield advanced 1.5 basis points to 1.530%

  • Australia’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 4.39%

Commodities

  • West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.7% to $68.54 a barrel

  • Spot gold was little changed

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