Shares rose in Asia on Monday as investors awaited signs the U.S. and China could be making progress in negotiations on resolving the trade war between the two biggest economies.
A report over the weekend said the proposed summit between President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping to sign a agreement ending the trade war may be pushed back to June as the deal is taking longer than originally hoped to finalize.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng HSI, +1.03% gained 1%, while the Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, +2.47% jumped 2.3%.
Japan’s Nikkei NIK, +0.62% advanced 0.6%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 XJO, +0.25% rose 0.3%. South Korea’s Kospi SEU, +0.16% SEU, +0.16% 0.2%.
China’s congress on Friday endorsed an investment law that aims to address complaints, particularly from the U.S., that China’s system is rigged against foreign companies. The U.S. claims China forces companies to share technology in order to do business in the country.
The lack of any major upsets in the talks has calmed frazzled nerves, but that could change.
“U.S.-China trade war concerns were a major factor of a global growth downgrade,” said Alfonso Esparza, an analyst with Oanda. “While comments from both sides have been positive, there have been few details on where negotiations stand. The delay could once again spark anxiety in the market.”
Wall Street ended last week on an upbeat note, with the S&P 500 SPX, +0.50% gaining 0.5% Friday to 2,822.48, a new high for the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.54% advanced 0.5% to 25,848.87. The Nasdaq composite climbed 0.8 percent, to 7,688.53. The S&P 500’s SPX, +0.50% gain was 0.5%. The Russell 2000 index RUT, +0.25% of smaller companies picked up 3.90 points, or 0.3%, to 1,553.54.
U.S. stocks have had a strong showing this year, with all the major indexes gaining at least 10%.
Traders are also confident that the Federal Reserve will hold off on any action that could jeopardize economic growth. The central bank, which signaled in January that it was hitting pause on its rate hikes amid a slowdown in global growth and weak inflation, is holding a meeting of policymakers this week.
The dollar USDJPY, +0.07% rose to 111.54 Japanese yen from 111.48 yen on Friday. The EURUSD, +0.1501% strengthened to $1.1343 from $1.1326.
The price of U.S. crude oil CLJ9, -0.19% slipped 12 cents to $58.40 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It slipped 0.2 percent to settle last week at $58.52 a barrel. Brent crude LCOK9, +0.01% gained 3 cents to $67.19 a barrel.
Among individual stocks, Rakuten 4755, +2.91% , SoftBank 9984, +1.15% and Nintendo 7974, +2.99% all rose in Tokyo trading. Tech companies Tencent 0700, +2.01% and Sunny Optical 2382, +2.65% gained in Hong Kong, while Samsung 005930, -1.13% fell in South Korea. Rio Tinto RIO, +1.66% and Fortescue Metals FMG, +5.40% advanced in Australia.
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