• The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 8.84 points, or 0.04 percent, to 21,182.53, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.65 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,433.79 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 24.38 points, or 0.39percent, to 6,321.76.
The "Trump trade" made a comeback on Thursday on Wall Street but the S&P and Dow industrials ended flat as former FBI director James Comey said President Donald Trump fired him to undermine an investigation into Russian meddling into last November's U.S. election.
• The pound weakened further on Friday in Asia as an exit poll suggested a hung parliament in the U.K. after Thursday's election, with regional indexes mixed in early trade.
Exit polls showed U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party might have lost its parliamentary majority, winning just 314 seats of the 326 seats required for a majority. The poll also showed that the Labour Party would secure 266 seats.
• Asian markets appeared to mostly shrug off the political uncertainty in the U.K.
• Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.18 percent in early trade and the Kospi gained 0.36 percent. Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was off by just 0.05 percent.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
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