Japanese stocks hold up in a choppy session for Asian equities
There's mixed sentiment across risk assets to start the day and equities are no exception to that. The buoyant US jobs report last week is doing little to impact stocks but is helping to see the dollar firm, which leaves the trade war as the main driver of risk sentiment currently.
With US and China having little to show from last week's meeting, investors are a little anxious and nervous as Asian stocks bounced up and down on the day. But for the time being, equities are relatively calm and the Nikkei's gains here should at least prevent negative tones ahead of European trading.
Chinese markets are off for the next few days in conjunction with the Lunar New Year, but the Hang Seng managed to squeeze in a 0.2% gain earlier on in two-and-a-half hours of trading.
