Shares were mostly lower in Asia on Tuesday, backtracking from Monday’s rally spurred by news that President Donald Trump had pushed back a deadline for raising tariffs on imports from China to allow time for more negotiations.
Mainland China indexes rose, however, after a report in the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post reported that a deputy chairman of the Banking Regulatory Commission, Wang Zhaoxing, had said risks from soaring debt had been contained.
The Shanghai Composite index SHCOMP, +0.97% added 0.4%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 index NIK, -0.37% lost 0.4%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index HSI, -0.55% fell 0.6%. South Korea’s Kospi SEU, -0.15% slipped 0.2%. The benchmark index in Taiwan Y9999, +0.01% was flat, while Singapore STI, -0.37% shares fell.
Australia’s ASX 200 XJO, -0.94% dropped 0.9% as falling prices for oil and other commodities hit energy companies such as Santos STO, -2.55% and Oil Search OSH, -1.19% .
Among individual stocks, oil producer Inpex 1605, -3.84% tumbled in Tokyo trading while Mitsubishi UFJ 8306, -0.27% and Hitachi 6501, -0.80% declined as well. AAC 2018, -12.85% plunged in Hong Kong 0883, -2.30% after the Apple AAPL, +0.73% supplier warned that first-quarter net profits may fall as much as 75%. CNOOC and Galaxy Entertainment 0027, -1.85% also fell. Samsung 005930, -1.37% and SK Hynix 000660, -0.53% slipped in Korea.
Overnight, stocks closed modestly higher after shedding most of their gains from an early rally spurred by the Trump administration’s decision to hold off on a March 2 increase in punitive duties on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.
Investors welcomed the move, which averted an escalation in the damaging trade war between the world’s two largest economies. The fight is over U.S. complaints that Beijing steals technology or pressures companies to hand it over.
But many questions remain about the prospects for a deal that would unwind the tariffs already slapped by both sides on billions of dollars of each other’s goods. Trump’s conflicting comments on the status of the talks have added to the uncertainty, said Jingyi Pan of IG.
“As it is, we continue to view the trade matter through an opaque screen and make assumptions from the shadows of President Donald Trump,” Pan said in a commentary.
The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.12% added 0.1% to 2,796.11. The Dow Jones Industrial average DJIA, +0.23% gained 0.2% to 26,091.95, while the Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.36% rose 0.4% to 7,554.46. The Russell 2000 index RUT, -0.08% of smaller companies dropped 0.1% to 1,588.81.
Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi SEU, -0.15% slipped 0.3% and India’s Sensex 1, -0.64% fell 0.6% amid mounting tensions with Pakistan. Shares were lower in Southeast Asia.
Pakistan’s military spokesman tweeted that Indian aircraft crossed into Pakistan and then “released payload in haste,” but said there were no casualties. The Indian side had no immediate comment.
U.S. crude oil CLJ9, -0.40% gave up 32 cents to $55.16 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost 3.1% to settle at $55.48 a barrel in New York after Trump criticized rising oil prices in an early morning tweet. Brent crude LCOJ9, -0.06% dropped 4 cents to $64.72 per barrel.
The dollar USDJPY, -0.23% fell to 110.83 yen from 111.04 yen on Monday. The EURUSD, +0.0000% strengthened to $1.1376 from $1.1356.
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