[MARKET ANALYSIS] Asia-Pac stocks took impetus from Waller-inspired global risk sentiment, while focus turns to the NFP report

APAC Stocks: Positive

• Asia-Pac stocks took impetus from the positive global risk sentiment and lower-yield environment after Fed's Waller kept a September rate hold in play and following no major new geopolitical developments, while participants look ahead to the key US jobs data.

ASX 200: -0.1%

• Lags with price action rangebound as the outperformance in tech and telecoms was overshadowed by weakness in mining, resources, materials, utilities and energy, while a quiet calendar and lack of drivers kept the index in check.

Nikkei 225: +0.9%

• Shrugged off the disappointing Household Spending data from Japan, with the index buoyed by lower yields and after a source report noted that the BoJ favours a 25bps rate hike this month and a flexible future pace, which helped ease concerns of a more aggressive move.

KOSPI +1.3%

• Rallied amid strength in tech heavyweights with notable gains in SK Hynix, while Samsung Electronics is also firmer after industry data showed it narrowed the gap with market leader SK Hynix in the global HBM market in Q2.

Hang Seng & Shanghai Comp: Hang Seng +2.1% / Shanghai Comp +0.4%

• Chinese markets are underpinned, with the Hong Kong benchmark spearheading the advances alongside strength in property, tech and auto stocks, while the gains in the mainland are limited after the PBoC continued to drain liquidity with today's open market operations amount remaining at zero.

US Equity Futures: Rangebound

• Pauses overnight after recent advances and with the NFP report on the horizon.

European Equity Futures Flat

• Indicate a flat cash market open with EuroStoxx 50 futures unchanged after the cash market closed with gains of 0.3% on Thursday.

This is a session wrap rather than a discrete event, and the mechanics are the familiar pre-NFP pattern: a dovish-leaning Fed remark lifts global equities, but positioning into the payrolls print caps follow-through in US and European futures, leaving the overnight strength concentrated in Asia. The crosscurrents worth separating are regional rather than directional. In Tokyo, the report that the BoJ favours a 25bp move with a flexible pace did the work of lowering yields and lifting equities; historically the yen-sensitive Nikkei rallies on the 'gradual hike' framing and sells on the 'aggressive' one, so the source report matters as much as the decision itself. In Korea, the move is idiosyncratic semiconductor beta, an HBM share story between the two memory heavyweights rather than a macro signal. In China, the Hang Seng over Shanghai divergence on a session where the PBoC drained liquidity is the classic pattern of offshore listings responding to global risk appetite while onshore indices stay hostage to domestic liquidity management. The established sequence from here is that pre-NFP ranges hold until the print, with the reaction function set by how much of the rate-path repricing is already done; commentary-inspired rallies of this kind have tended to fade or extend entirely on the data.