Asian markets rose Thursday, tracking gains on Wall Street and following the US Postal Service’s U-turn on a ban on parcels from China and Hong Kong, though trade war fears continue to keep sentiment at bay.
Global equites and currencies have been hit by volatility this week after US President Donald Trump announced hefty tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, sparking tit-for-tat responses.
But while he reached deals with the United States’ neighbours to delay implementation of the measures, there was no such agreement with Beijing.
That was followed Tuesday by news the USPS had scrapped a duty-free exemption for low-value packages from China and Hong Kong — dealing a heavy blow to Chinese ecommerce giants.
But it rowed back on Wednesday, saying it would “continue accepting all international inbound mail and packages”.
The news provided traders with some positive mood music to start the day.
Markets across Asia were on the rise, with Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Wellington and Taipei benefiting.
However, investors remain on edge about the economic outlook as Trump appears set to resume the hardball approach to trade and diplomacy seen in his first term.
“Trade War 2.0 is different from the US-China Trade War 1.0 enacted in January 2018 in terms of coverage as this time round it involves major trading partners of the US, on top of the ongoing US-China Tech War,” said OANDA senior market analyst Kelvin Wong.
“Hence, countries that have a significant trade surplus with the US will be at risk of being targeted by Trump’s trade tariffs policy; the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and ASEAN export-dependent countries such as Vietnam, and Malaysia.
“If trade negotiations are not able to reach the ‘middle ground’ between the US and the targeted countries, tit-for-tat retaliation measures may escalate.”
Ongoing uncertainty about the outlook helped safe-haven gold to a new high above $2,882.
– Key figures around 0130 GMT –
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 percent to 39,030.39
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.3 percent to 20,654.88
Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.1 percent to 3,232.46
Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0400 from $1.0397 on Wednesday
Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2504 from $1.2502
Dollar/yen: DOWN at 152.34 yen from 152.63 yen
Euro/pound: UP at 83.18 pence from 83.16 pence
West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.2 percent at $71.17 per barrel
Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.1 percent at $74.68 per barrel
New York – Dow: UP 0.7 percent at 44,873.28 (close)
London – FTSE 100: UP 0.6 percent at 8,623.29 (close)
