Most Asian stocks rose marginally on Thursday amid increased hopes for a deescalation in U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda ahead of trade talks between Washington and Beijing later this week.
Regional tech stocks also tracked some gains in their U.S. peers, after reports suggested that the Trump administration was planning to scale back export curbs on advanced artificial intelligence chips.
Asian markets also took a positive lead-in from Wall Street, which was buoyed by tech gains. U.S. stock index futures rose in Asian trade after Trump said he will announce a major trade deal later in the day, with reports suggesting the deal will be with Britain.
S&P 500 Futures added 0.5%, while Nasdaq 100 Futures rose 0.7%. But sentiment towards Wall Street also remained on edge after the Federal Reserve warned of heightened economic and trade uncertainty.
But regional sentiment still remained frail, especially amid heightened military tensions between India and Pakistan, after New Delhi launched strikes against alleged terrorist targets in Pakistan.
Islamabad retaliated with artillery strikes along the border region in Kashmir, with the clash marking some of the worst fighting between the two nuclear armed powers in recent years.
China stocks upbeat, US trade talks in focus China’s Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 and Shanghai Composite indexes rose 0.4% and 0.1%, respectively, on Thursday.
Chinese stocks saw marginal strength after Washington and Beijing confirmed that officials will meet for trade talks in Switzerland this week. While the prospect of trade dialogue did drive some optimism over deescalation in a bitter U.S.-China trade war, it appeared unlikely that a trade deal would be struck soon.
3rd party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Investing.com. See disclosure here or remove ads. Beijing signaled that the meeting was largely at the U.S.’ request, while Trump said he did not intend to lower his steep 145% tariffs against China before the talks.
Beijing has demanded that the U.S. lower its trade tariffs before any serious trade negotiations can begin– a demand that has been largely rebuked by Trump.
Asia tech rises on hopes of less strict US chip export curbs Tech-heavy Asian bourses led gains on Thursday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 0.9%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.4%. South Korea’s KOSPI rose 0.3%.
Tech was boosted chiefly by reports that the U.S. will scale back Biden-era curbs on advanced AI chip exports, which bodes well for U.S.-based chipmakers. But such a move also heralds more business for the Asian companies that supply to U.S. chipmakers.
Regional suppliers of AI major Nvidia– such as Taiwan’s TSMC (TW:2330) and South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc (KS:000660)– rose between 0.5% and 1.5% on Thursday. Japan’s Advantest Corp. (TYO:6857) added 2.8%, while Chinese internet stocks– such as Alibaba (HK:9988) and Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK:0700)– rose on the prospect of being able to source more advanced U.S. chips for their AI ambitions.
Broader Asian markets were mostly positive. Australia’s ASX 200 added 0.2%, although bigger gains were held back by a 3% drop in ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:ANZ), after the major bank clocked middling first-half earnings.
3rd party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Investing.com. See disclosure here or remove ads. Westpac Banking Corp (ASX:WBC) also weighed on the ASX with a nearly 5% slide, as it traded ex-dividend.
Futures for India’s Nifty 50 index rose 0.5%, heralding a positive open, with local stocks showing limited reaction to heightened tensions with Pakistan. The Nifty 50 rose about 0.1% on Wednesday.
Singapore’s Straits Times index was an outlier, losing about 0.2%, while Japan’s TOPIX index shed 0.2%.
