Asian shares down, yen stays strong

Hong Kong - Asian markets slipped on Friday following a rise on Wall Street amid a mixed bag of earnings reports and as the yen remained strong against the dollar.

Tokyo lost 0.97% by the break, Hong Kong slid 0.14%, Seoul fell 0.73%, Shanghai was down by 0.31% while Sydney bucked the trend by rising 0.39%.

"Enthusiasm for equities remains strong as Japanese corporates enter the meat of earnings reporting season," said SMBC Nikko Securities general manager of equities Hiroichi Nishi.

The dollar was ¥97.38 in early Friday trade against ¥97.29 in New York on Thursday afternoon.

"However, further upside is progressively difficult for the market with little potential seen for the dollar to rise much beyond current levels," Nishi said.

A strong yen is a negative for Japanese exporters as it makes their products less competitive abroad and erode income when repatriated.

In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.62%, or 95.88 points, to 15,509.21 while the broad-based S&P 500 added 0.33%, or 5.69 points, to 1,752.07.

Peter Cardillo, director of investment research at Rockwell Global Capital, said the market is "feeding on itself" amid recent momentum and confidence the Federal Reserve will maintain an aggressive stimulus policy.

"We're in a market that has a momentum, going up fast, it's going to have to pause some day," Cardillo said. "But right now, it's all about easy money, cheap money, as long as the Fed doesn't taper."

Of the 213 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings so far, 141 have exceeded expectations and 43 have missed, with the remainder in line with forecasts, according to a report by S&P Capital IQ.

The euro, which rose past the $1.38 mark to hit a two-year high Thursday, remained strong, buying $1.3801.

The euro hit a peak of $1.3827, its highest level since early November 2011, in New York Thursday before coming down to $1.3798 in afternoon trade. The single currency also bought ¥134.37 against ¥134.26 in US trade.

In oil trade, New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate for delivery in December, was up 14 cents at $97.25, while Brent North Sea crude for December gained 12c to $107.11.

Gold rose to $1 343.88 at 02:15 GMT compared with $1 339.48 on Thursday.