Hong Kong: Asian shares were mixed Thursday after Wall Street set more records, as investors closely monitored takeaways from US President Donald Trump's summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing. Trump met with Xi at the Great Hall of the People and they talked about US-China relations and Taiwan, but analysts did not expect major breakthroughs.
US futures edged higher. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index was up 0.3 per cent to 63,448.87, after briefly reaching another all-time intraday record at above 63,700, partly supported by robust corporate results. South Korea's Kospi was up 0.5 per cent to 7,884.71, helped by technology-related stocks.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.7 per cent to 26,584.88. The Shanghai Composite index lost 0.9 per cent to 4,204.41. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged down less than 0.1 per cent to 8,627.80. Taiwan's Taiex was up 0.6 per cent, and India's Sensex climbed 0.5 per cent. Oil prices were trading higher, with no clear ending to the Iran war after more than two months. Some were hoping the Trump-Xi meeting could bring results, after US officials said Beijing could use its close economic ties with Tehran to press Iran to reopen the Strait or Hormuz.
Brent crude, the international standard, was up 0.4 per cent at USD 106.04 per barrel. It was around USD 70 a barrel before the war in Iran started late February. That also came after the International Energy Agency said Wednesday that supply losses from the strait were “depleting global oil inventories at a record pace”. Benchmark US crude was also up 0.4 per cent to USD 101.43 per barrel.
Investors are also watching for updates on China's imports of Nvidia's advanced H200 chips, after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was confirmed to be a part of Trump's China trip alongside other top executives including Tesla's Elon Musk and Apple's Tim Cook. On Wednesday, technology stocks led Wall Street gains. The benchmark S&P 500 climbed 0.6 per cent to 7,444.25 and reached another all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 0.1 per cent to 49,693.20, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 1.2 per cent to 26,402.34 and set its own record.
In other dealings, the yield on the US 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.46 per cent from 4.47 per cent though still significantly above around 3.97 per cent from before the Iran war began. A report Wednesday showed that US wholesale prices surged in April, fueled by impacts from the Iran war-caused energy shock. On Wednesday, the US Senate also confirmed Kevin Warsh, Trump's nominee, to lead the Federal Reserve. He would be take over from Jerome Powell, who had been criticised by Trump repeatedly for not cutting rates faster or deeper. The US dollar fell to 157.85 Japanese yen from 157.86 yen. The euro was trading at USD 1.1715, up from USD 1.1711.
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