Shares were mixed in Asia on Wednesday, following a choppy trading day on Wall Street as the Trump administration pressed its campaign to win more favorable trade deals with nations around the globe.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 is up 0.2% to 39,764. 02, while South Korea’s Kospi added 0.5% to 3,132.02 as Tokyo and Seoul are working a trade deal with the U.S. before higher tariffs announced by Washington take effect on Aug. 1.
“Sectoral carve-outs remain the thorniest terrain,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management wrote in a commentary, adding that Korea and Japan are likely seeking relief for their car and steel exports. “But Washington is unlikely to bend,” he warned.
Meanwhile, Chinese markets were mixed. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.7% to 23,970.39 while the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.3% to 3,507.69.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.4% to 8,559.30. India’s BSE Sensex edged down 0.2% to 83,570.86.
Oil prices were down while the dollar rose against the yen and the euro.
Mizuho Bank, in a commentary, said the tariff deadlines “distract from far more consequential, and expedient, sectoral tariffs, which arguably reverberate across global industrial eco-systems” which it said aim to isolate China from trade partners, supply chains and markets.
“The real danger is underestimating the fallout when (rather than if) China hits back” against the U.S. and countries it perceives as aligned with the U.S., the bank wrote.
On Wall Street on Tuesday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.1% a day after posting its biggest loss since mid-June. The benchmark index remains near its all-time high set last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave back 0.4%. The Nasdaq composite eked out a gain of less than 0.1%, staying near its own record high.
The sluggish trading came as the market was coming off a broad sell-off following the Trump administration’s decision to impose new import tariffs on more than a dozen nations, which are set to go into effect next month.
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AP Business Writer Alex Veiga contributed.
