Investing.com - Asian shares traded mixed on Friday after the U.S. fired missiles into Syria in response to a chemical weapons attack in the country that President Donald Trump laid at the hands of President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
The missile strikes happened as President Donald Trump hosts Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
A U.S. military official told NBC that 59 tomahawks had been fired, which hit an airfield near Homs. The missiles hit aircraft and infrastructure including the runway, NBC reported. There is no word on casualties yet, but no people were targeted, the official told NBC.
In a statement, Trump said he had called for the military strike in response to a chemical attack in a rebel-held area in northern Syria. The strike also comes after Trump had said earlier in the day that "something should happen" with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad following the attack.
In Asia, equity markets initially fell with the Nikkei 225 hitting four-month low, before recovering up 0.50%. South Korea's Kospi eased 0.18% while the S&P/ASX 200 declined by 0.18%. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.25%, while Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index dropped by 0.58%.
U.S. futures fell after the news with Dow Jones futures down 56 points and S&P 500 futures off around 6 points, while Nasdaq futures eased 13 points. The U.S. 10-year yield hit a low of 2.289%.
Elsewhere, investors look ahead to a key nonfarm payrolls report on Friday at 08:30 EDT / 12:30 BST. It is widely expected that 180,000 jobs were added to U.S. labor market in March.
Overnight, U.S. stocks closed higher on Thursday, after better than expected U.S. initial jobless claims data boosted sentiment while investors eyed the two-day meeting between Trump and Xi.
A bullish U.S. initial jobless report on Thursday, added to narrative of a strengthening U.S. economy, after the U.S. Department of Labor reported that initial jobless claims decreased by 25,000 to 234,000 in the week ending April 1 from the previous week’s revised total of 259,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to drop by 8,000 to 250,000 last week. Meanwhile, on the political front, President Donald Trump responded Thursday, to this week’s chemical attack in Syria and blamed the attack on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.08% higher at 20,663. The S&P 500 gained 0.20% and the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.25% higher at 5878.95.