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Asia Markets: Asian markets rise on renewed hopes of trade truce emerging from G-20 meeting

Asian markets gained in early trading Thursday, as investors focused on optimistic signs ahead of Saturday’s meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in Japan. Read More...

Asian markets gained in early trading Thursday, as investors focused on optimistic signs ahead of Saturday’s meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit.

The meeting is undoubtedly the economic highlight of the summit, held in Osaka, Japan, on Friday and Saturday. Investors hope that the presidents will move toward resolving a trade dispute that has raised business costs and weighed on global financial markets.

Trump has said he was prepared to place tariffs on $300 billion more in Chinese imports, covering everything China ships to the United States, if the talks with Xi don’t end in progress.

“The Chinese economy’s going down the tubes,” he said in an interview with Fox Business Network on Wednesday. “They want to make a deal more than I do.”

Early Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary said a trade deal with China was “90% of the way there,” and that he was confident Trump and Xi would make inroads to restarting negotiations. On Thursday, the South China Morning Post reported the U.S. and China have tentatively agreed to a tariff truce in order to resume trade talks, and that an official announcement would be made before Trump and Xi meet in Osaka.

Japan’s Nikkei NIK, +0.94%   rose 1% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI, +1.13%   gained 1.1%. The Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, +0.89%   advanced 0.9% while the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite 399106, +1.17%   rose 1.1%. South Korea’s Kospi 180721, +0.80%   gained 0.7% and benchmark indexes in Taiwan Y9999, +1.11%  , Singapore STI, +0.69%   and Indonesia JAKIDX, +0.34%   advanced as well. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 XJO, +0.14%   edged up 0.1%.

Among individual stocks, Japan Display 6740, +20.00%   skyrocketed in Tokyo trading after a report that Apple AAPL, +2.16%   will invest $100 million into the beleaguered company. SoftBank 9984, +3.36%  , Toyota 7203, +0.86%   and Mitsubishi UFJ 8306, +1.13%   also gained. In Hong Kong, casino operators Sands China 1928, +2.75%   and Galaxy Entertainment 27, +3.87%   rose, along with AAC 2018, +3.02%   and Sunny Optical 2382, +3.13%  . Samsung 005930, +2.54%   advanced in South Korea and Taiwan Semiconductor 2330, +2.13%   gained in Taiwan. BHP BHP, +1.51%   and Rio Tinto RIO, +2.85%   rose in Australia.

Stephen Innes of Vanguard Markets believes the upcoming talks at the G-20 will be a “formality at best.”

“Although Mnuchin suggested we are 90% there to a trade deal, that reaming 10% has always been the gap too far to bridge — especially that trust gap where the U.S. wants to keep existing tariffs in place to ensure China compliance,” he added.

Wall Street made early gains Wednesday on optimism over the talks. But the rally fizzled and most major benchmarks were lower at the closing bell.

The S&P 500 index SPX, -0.12%   eased 0.1% to 2,913.78 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.04%   shed less than 0.1% to 26,536.82. The Nasdaq composite COMP, +0.32%   added 0.3% to 7,909.97.

Benchmark U.S. crude CLQ19, -0.37%   lost 16 cents to $59.22 a barrel. It picked up $1.55 to settle at $59.38 a barrel on Wednesday. Brent crude oil BRNQ19, -0.29%  , the international standard, shed 21 cents to $65.48 a barrel. The contract gained $1.41 to $65.69 a barrel in the previous session.

The dollar USDJPY, +0.28%   rose to 107.97 yen from 107.79 yen late Wednesday.

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