Overnight

No helicopter money for now says Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda. Helicopter money is a term used to describe money-financed fiscal programs of which the government undertakes. The Nikkei 225 was down just under 1.0% at 0.93% ad the yen strengthened against the U.S. dollar ealry Friday at 105.78 as opposed to 107.15 Thursday. Two week ago it traded near 100.

Other Asian shares were also off with the Hang Seng Index lower 0.4%, the Australian ASX 200 slightly lower at 0.19%, The Shanghai and Shenzhen were down 0.21% and 0.11% with the Korean Kospi flat. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS traded down 0.4 percent, but still close to its nine-month high seen on Thursday, and is headed for a fractional 0.1 percent gain on the week, according to Reuters.

Part of the Asian story centered on the European Central Bank story when ECB President noted the bank was leaving interest rates unchanged. He also pointed out it was too early to assess the Brexit full impact. There was some who felt investors had built up expectations from both the Bank of Japan and the ECB for more monetary stimulus and it may still happen but stock markets, even some emerging market ones, have surprised officials of late by blowing off much of the Brexit fears.


Reuters reported: The pull back in stocks and dollar gave gold a boost. Spot gold XAU= jumped 1.2 percent overnight, but inched down 0.2 percent to $1,328.22 an ounce. Thursday's gains helped shrink losses for the week to 0.8 percent.