Asian markets retreated in early trading Wednesday, as the afterglow of last weekend’s trade-truce announcement gave way to uncertainty that a deal will actually be made anytime soon.
Peter Navarro, President Donald Trump’s top trade adviser, said Tuesday that talks between the U.S. and China were headed in a “very good direction,” but a lack of concrete details and both sides’ hardened positions make the chances for a trade deal little better than they were before Trump’s meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping. While Trump said Monday that some talks had “already begun,” high-level negotiations have not been held since early May, and none are scheduled.
Tuesday night, Trump said he intends to nominate Judy Shelton and Christopher Waller to two vacant spots on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. That could give Trump more allies in his efforts to persuade the Fed to cut interest rates; Shelton has publicly argued for cutting rates, and Waller has been a deputy to St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, who pushed for a rate cut at the Fed’s last meeting.
Japan’s Nikkei NIK, -0.67% slipped 0.7% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI, -0.31% edged down 0.2%. The Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, -0.83% fell 0.8%, as did the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite 399106, -0.77% . South Korea’s Kospi 180721, -0.76% dropped 0.8%, and benchmark indexes in Taiwan Y9999, -1.07% , Singapore STI, -0.37% and Indonesia JAKIDX, -0.40% all declined. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 XJO, +0.51% was one of the region’s outliers, rising 0.4%.
Among individual stocks, Fast Retailing 9983, +3.61% gained in Tokyo trading, while SoftBank 9984, -1.77% and Inpex 1605, -2.28% fell. In Hong Kong, PetroChina 857, -2.53% and Tencent 700, -1.27% declined. Samsung 005930, -1.73% and SK Hynix 066570, +0.00% dropped in South Korea, and Taiwan Semiconductor 2330, -2.41% dropped in Taiwan. Beach Energy BPT, -4.90% and Oil Search OSH, -2.23% slid in Australia.
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