Specialist Meric Greenbaum works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, April 9, 2018. U.S. stock indexes finished a bit higher Monday as investors let go of some of their fears about a possible trade war between the U.S. and China. But far bigger gains slipped away as the market suffered a steep afternoon decline. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Republished April 09, 2018 - 8:51 PM
Original Publication Date April 09, 2018 - 1:36 PM
TOKYO - Asian markets mostly rose but stayed within a narrow range in subdued trading Tuesday as global investors continued to weigh their fears about a possible trade war between the U.S. and China.
KEEPING SCORE: Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.2 per cent to 21,730.41 in morning trading. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.6 per cent to 5,843.00. South Korea's Kospi inched down 0.2 per cent to 2,439.13. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.8 per cent to 30,467.23, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.3 per cent to 3,148.86.
TRADE WORRIES: Indexes are fluctuating in recent sessions as they try to guess the outcome of the U.S.-China trade dispute. While President Donald Trump continued to bash America's trade deals on Twitter, he said the U.S. and China could settle their dispute. But things looked worse at the end of last week, when Trump threatened to impose tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese goods. China has pledged to "counterattack with great strength" if Trump decides to follow through on that threat. The two nations had already proposed $50 billion in tariffs on imports, but none of that has taken effect yet.
WALL STREET: The S&P 500 index gained 8.69 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 2,613.16. The S&P 500 fell 1.4 per cent last week, with large losses Monday and Friday and strong gains in between. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 46.34 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 23,979.10. The Nasdaq composite jumped 35.23 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 6,950.34. The Russell 2000 index of smaller company stocks added 1.17 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 1,514.46.
THE QUOTE: "Market nerves over trade tensions have seemingly calmed down, given that Trump has sounded optimistic on the prospects of a trade deal with China, notwithstanding Chinese protestations," said Chang Wei Liang, analyst at Mizuho Bank.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude rose 45 cents to $63.87 a barrel. It jumped $1.36, or 2.2 per cent, to $63.42 a barrel overnight in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, added 37 cents to $69.02 a barrel.
CURRENCIES: The dollar was little changed, inching down to 107.08 yen from 107.12 late Monday. The euro rose to $1.2314 from $1.2275.
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AP Markets Writer Marley Jay, who contributed to this report, can be reached at http://twitter.com/MarleyJayAP
His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/marley%20jay
Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
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News from © The Associated Press, 2018