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Dow Jones NewsApr 17, 2:10 AM UTC
Asian Stocks Rise as U.S.-Japan Trade Talks Kick Off
By Kimberley Kao
Asian equity markets gained Thursday amid positive signals from U.S. equity futures as investors await the outcome of U.S.-Japan trade talks.
"Being one of the first countries to approach the U.S. for direct talks, Japan's discussions are being closely watched by financial markets to assess what concessions are discussed at the meeting," ANZ Research said in a note.
The Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.6%, with electronics and heavy industry stocks leading gains. TDK added 3.3% and Advantest gained 2.1%, while Kawasaki Heavy Industries advanced 3.5%.
South Korea's Kospi was up 0.35%, shortly after the Bank of Korea's decision to keep interest rates steady amid U.S. tariff uncertainties, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3%.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.5%, but China's Shanghai Composite Index ticked down 0.1%.
President Trump's exclusion of levies on consumer electronics gave investors a brief reprieve earlier this week, with stocks broadly gaining across the region. However, the lack of clarity on looming tariff developments continues to weigh on sentiment as markets struggle to digest changing tit-for-tat tariff developments.
Analysts think U.S. tariff hikes on Japan could remain suspended indefinitely even after the current 90-day pause.
However, automobile tariffs and other industry-specific levies are likely here to stay, though there is still "quite a high degree of uncertainty," Nomura economists said in a note.
Spot gold recently touched another record intraday high of $3,357.92 a troy ounce, and was last down 0.4% at $3,328.07 a troy ounce.
The U.S. dollar rose 0.5% against the Japanese yen.
Write to Kimberley Kao at kimberley.kao@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 16, 2025 22:10 ET (02:10 GMT)
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