19 November 2025, China, Shanghai: Boats sail past downtown Shanghai on the Huangpu River. The tallest building on the skyline is the Shanghai Tower (rear).
Bernd von Jutrczenka | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
Defense stocks across Asia climbed Friday as investors continued to monitor ongoing geopolitical tensions, following the U.S. operation that captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and President Donald Trump’s renewed push to take over Greenland.
Shares of South Korean Hanwha Aerospace surged as much as 11%. Poongsan jumped more than 6% while Korea Aerospace advanced 5%. In Japan, shares of Kawasaki Heavy Industries rose 2.29%, while IHI added 2.14%.
Markets in the region traded mixed.
China’s CSI 300 inched 0.1% higher after its December consumer prices rose 0.8% from a year earlier, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday. The reading followed a 0.7% climb in November and matched expectations of economists in a Reuters poll. Factory-gate prices dipped 1.9% in December from a year ago, better than the forecast for a 2% decline.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was flat.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 1.24%, while the Topix climbed 0.62%.
Shares of Fast Retailing popped more than 7% after the Japanese operator of Uniqlo said quarterly operating profit jumped about one-third and it raised its full-year forecast.
The company cited strong global sales that helped offset the impact of U.S. tariffs, adding it remained on track for a fifth straight year of profit growth, supported by stronger sales in China and rapid expansion in North America and Europe.
South Korea’s Kospi added 0.67% and the small-cap Kosdaq was flat.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 ticked slightly below the flatline. Shares of Rio Tinto slid over 5% after the miner announced late Thursday it had entered early-stage buyout talks with Glencore. A successful merger would create a mining giant valued at nearly $207 billion.
U.S. equity futures were little changed in early Asian hours ahead of a key December jobs report and a potential U.S. Supreme Court ruling on tariffs. The Supreme Court could issue a ruling on the legality of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which could have an impact on trade policy and the nation’s fiscal situation.
Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose while the Nasdaq Composite came under pressure as investors moved away from technology stocks.
The 30-stock Dow climbed 270.03 points, or 0.55%, and ended at 49,266.11. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 0.44% and settled at 23,480.02. The S&P 500 advanced 0.01% and closed at 6,921.46. Among the 11 S&P 500 sectors, information technology was the laggard, falling more than 1%.
— CNBC’s Pia Singh and Sean Conlon contributed to this report.
