OVERNIGHT

Sounding a lot like ECB President Mario Draghi, Japan's central bank counterpart, Haruhiko Karoda, speaking in New York Wednesday said the BOJ "will not hesitate to take additional easing measures in terms of....quantity, quality and the interest rate if it judged necessary."

Japan and the EU are both fiddling around with negative interest rates in what so far has been anything but a success. The idea was to weaken both currencies in an attempt to revive their economies at least in part by exports. Investors have responded in Japan's case by pushing the yen to 18 month highs against the dollar.

But uncertainty creates it's own sometimes unexpected uncertainty as the yen became a safe haven currency with investors pushing it to new highs. That wasn't suppose to happen. Part of the problen has been concerns about China, the global economy in general and the credibility of Abernomics in particular.

In what was a caution mood early Friday, investors avoided risk ahead of a weekend oil meeting that will be watched closely to see if any meaningful production cuts are in store. Meanwhile, China reported GDP growth 6.7%, a number many feel is suspect. But investors seemed unruffled.
Reuters reported Japan's Nikkei .N225 was down 0.3 percent, while Australian shared edged up 0.4 percent . Other modest gainers included Malaysian and Indonesian stocks. Shanghai .SSEC lost 0.4 percent, while South Korea's Kospi .KS11 inched down 0.1percent. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.1 percent. The index has gained about 3.5 percent on the week during which it hit a five-month high, helped by a slight thaw in pessimism over the Chinese economy and an earlier surge in crude oil prices.