Asian shares were mostly higher Wednesday, cheered by prospects for a resolution to the costly trade dispute between the U.S. and China, which had also sent Wall Street indexes higher.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225
NIK, +1.43%
added 1.5% in morning trading, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200
XJO, -0.30%
slipped 0.1%. South Korea’s Kospi
SEU, +0.41%
edged up 0.4%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng
HSI, +0.80%
gained 0.8%, while the Shanghai Composite index
SHCOMP, +0.94%
advanced 0.9% and the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite
399106, +1.19%
rose 1.1%.
Among individual stocks, oil company Inpex
1605, +14.05%
soared in Tokyo trading after raising its annual profit forecast by 37%, while SoftBank
9984, +5.95%
and Honda
7267, +1.80%
rose as well. Tech and oil stocks rose in Hong Kong, with AAC
2018, +7.46%
, Sunny Optical
2382, +2.93%
, PetroChina
0857, +2.24%
and China Petroleum & Chemical
0386, +2.15%
all advancing. LG Electronics
066570, +0.42%
gained in South Korea while auto maker Hyundai
005380, -1.95%
fell. In Australia, Beach Energy
BPT, +6.04%
surged after reporting a nearly 200% rise in profit and an improved guidance.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he might let a March 2 deadline slide in trade talks with China if the two countries get close to a deal. Earlier, the White House had called the date a “hard deadline.”
Both nations are trying to reach a deal before March 1. That’s when additional tariffs will kick in, escalating the conflict and further hurting companies and consumers with higher prices on materials and products.
A pan-Pacific trade dispute is detrimental to the export-dependent Asian region, and a slowdown in growth in China will hurt neighboring economies, such as Japan’s.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 index
SPX, +1.29%
gained 34.93 points, or 1.3%, to 2,744.73. The Dow
DJIA, +1.49%
climbed 372.65 points, or 1.5%, to 25,425.76. The index was briefly up by 405 points. The Nasdaq composite
COMP, +1.46%
rose 106.71 points, or 1.5%, to 7,414.62. The Russell 2000 index
RUT, +1.27%
of smaller-company stocks, which has been leading the other indexes this year, added 19.25 points, or 1.3%, to 1,538.23.
U.S. benchmark crude
CLJ9, +0.97%
rose 50 cents to $53.60 a barrel. It rose 1.3% to settle at $53.10 per barrel in New York. Brent crude
LCOJ9, +0.96%
, the standard for international oil prices, gained 53 cents to $62.95 per barrel in London.
The dollar
USDJPY, +0.11%
rose to 110.63 yen from 110.50 yen Tuesday.
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Source : MTV
