The Asian market last: Asian markets are higher before Powell's speech; the yuan rumbles on

South Korea, meanwhile, said on Thursday it would scrape its military intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan, an escalation in a trade dispute between the two countries threatening global supply chains for smartphones and other things.

Japan also announced that the core consumer price index, which excludes data on fluctuating fresh food prices, rose just 0.6% in July ̵[ads1]1; a two-year low, according to Refinitive. The broader consumer price index rose 0.5%.

The Bank of Japan kept its ultra-low interest rates unchanged at last month's policy meeting, but said at the time it "would not hesitate to make adjustments if necessary. [19659007]" The big picture is that inflation will fall next year, "wrote Marcel Thieliant, senior economist in Japan for capital economics, in a research note Friday.

China's yuan also plummeted on Friday. The People's Bank of China set the daily reference rate for the currency at 7.0572 against the US dollar, the lowest since March 2008.

The markets are in a state of "currency war detention," wrote Stephen Innes, managing partner at Valor Markets, in a research note, but he added that the yuan's weakening indicates that China's central bank "may be putting one of [19659013] cards on the table. "

" These are not the cheerful signals for risk terms in my view, "added Innes.