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
rose 0.5% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index
gained 0.2%. The Shanghai Composite
advanced 0.2% and the Shenzhen Composite
jumped 0.5%. South Korea’s Kospi
fell 0.8%, while benchmark indexes in Singapore
and Indonesia
were mixed. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200
was about flat. Taiwan’s Taiex was closed for a holiday.
Among individual stocks, convenience-store chain FamilyMart
rose in Tokyo trading, along with SoftBank
and Advantest
. In Hong Kong, AAC Technologies
and Sunny Optical
gained, while New World Development
retreated. LG Electronics
advanced in South Korea while Fortescue Metals
fell in Australia.