Asian markets erase early losses on reports of partial trade deal, easing of Huawei blacklist

Asian markets rallied from early losses into positive territory in early trading Thursday, following conflicting reports of progress in the U.S.-China trade war.

Markets opened lower following a report by the South China Morning Post that “no progress” had been made in low-level meetings to lay the groundwork for a high-level meeting starting Thursday in Washington.

But a later report by Bloomberg News said the Trump administration was making moves toward a partial trade deal, including putting off tariff hikes scheduled to go into effect next week. The report said negotiations on touchier issues such as forced transfers of technologies could come later. The New York Times also reported that the U.S. would soon issue licenses to some U.S. companies to do business again with China’s Huawei Technologies, a move that could significantly ease tensions.

Japan’s Nikkei

NIK, +0.45%

rose 0.5% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index

HSI, +0.36%

gained 0.2%. The Shanghai Composite

SHCOMP, +0.52%

advanced 0.2% and the Shenzhen Composite

399106, +1.11%

jumped 0.5%. South Korea’s Kospi

180721, -0.29%

fell 0.8%, while benchmark indexes in Singapore

STI, -0.09%