Stock market today: Asian shares turn lower, while Tokyo's benchmark extends rally

Asian shares are mostly lower, though Tokyo's benchmark extended its New Year rally, trading well above 35,000 and at its highest level since 1990

BANGKOK -- Asian shares turned lower Friday, though Tokyo’s benchmark extended its New Year rally, trading well above 35,000 and at its highest level since 1990.

U.S. futures slipped slightly, while oil prices surged more than $1 a barrel.

China reported its exports and imports edged higher in December in a sign that its economic recovery remains uneven, though global demand may be reviving as central banks halt their latest round of inflation-fighting interest rate increases.

Consumer prices fell 0.3% in December, the third consecutive month of declines and a sign of persisting weakness in demand. The producer price index — which measures prices that factories charge wholesalers — fell 2.7% in the 15th straight month that it has fallen.

Some of that growth was fueled by a nearly 64% increase in auto exports in 2023, to 4.1 million passenger cars, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reported Thursday.