Asian stocks edge higher as China-US trade talks end without a deal

Business Standard

4 days ago

Shares in Asia were mostly higher on Wednesday after the US and China ended their latest round of trade talks without a deal. US futures edged higher while oil prices slipped.
Beijing's top trade official said China and the United States agreed during two days of talks in Stockholm, Sweden, to work on extending an Aug 12 deadline for imposing higher tariffs on each other. The US side said an extension was discussed, but not decided on.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer says the American team would head back to Washington and talk to the president about whether that's something that he wants to do.
A Friday deadline is looming for many of Trump's proposed tariffs on other countries. Several highly anticipated economic reports are also on the way, including the latest monthly update on the job market.
Markets had been floating on a cloud of trade optimism first Japan, then the EU but the sugar high is wearing off. Now, with U.S.-China talks dragging on in Stockholm, there's a growing sense that the momentum is stalling, Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 0.3% to 25,441.64 while the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.5% to 3,628.53.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index edged less than 0.1% higher to 40,687.17. Gains for electronics companies were offset by losses for major exporters like Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.6% to 8,759.20 and in South Korea, the Kospi gained 0.9% to 3,259.00.
Taiwan's Taiex rose 0.9% while the Sensex in India edged 0.1% higher.
On Tuesday, U.S. stock indexes edged back from their record levels as a busy week for Wall Street picked up momentum. The S&P 500 fell 0.3% to 6,370.86, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.5% to 44,632.99.
The Nasdaq composite was down 0.4% at 21,098.29.
SoFi Technologies jumped 7.4%, but Merck dropped 2.2% and UPS sank 9.2% following a torrent of profit reports from big U.S. companies. They're among the hundreds of companies telling investors this week how much they made during the spring, including nearly a third of the stocks in the S&P 500 index.
UnitedHealth Group dropped 5.8% after reporting a profit for the spring that fell short of analysts' expectations. It also gave a forecast for profit over all of 2025 that investors found disappointing. The health care giant said it expected to earn at least $16 per share, when analysts were looking for something close to $20, according to FactSet.
Shares of Novo Nordisk that trade in the United States tumbled 21.3% after the Danish company cut its forecast for sales growth this year, in part because of lower expectations for its Wegovy weight-loss drug amid high competition.
Treasury yields sank as the Federal Reserve began a two-day meeting on interest rates.
Despite pressure from President Donald Trump for lower rates, which would give the economy a boost, the widespread expectation is that the Fed will wait for more data about how Trump's tariffs are affecting inflation and the economy before making its next move.
The U.S. economy appears to be slowing.
One report on Tuesday said that U.S. employers were advertising fewer job openings at the end of June than a month before, though still more than economists expected. A separate report said confidence rose among U.S. consumers, but a measure of their expectations about the near term remains below the level that typically signals a recession ahead.
In other dealings early Wednesday, US benchmark crude oil picked up 7 cents to $69.28 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, was up 13 cents at $71.82 per barrel.
The dollar fell to 148.13 Japanese yen from 148.48 yen. The euro rose to $1.1554 from $1.1546.