U.S. President Donald Trump be sured reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday that he hoped to strike a deal with China before the March deadline. Trump also thought Chinese President Xi Jinping told him in a letter that he hopes both sides will be able to meet each other halfway on a buy agreement before the deadline.
The comments came on the same day that the U.S. and China concluded two days of high-level negotiations in Washington.
Two commencements also told CNBC on Thursday that U.S. and Chinese officials are talking about arranging a meeting between Trump and Xi for up-to-date February.
Meanwhile, stocks stateside closed out their best January in three decades amid strong earnings. The S&P 500 swoop down oned 7.87 percent, its best January performance since 1987, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 7.17 percent in the month — its biggest January make in 30 years.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 95.591 after convoy lows above 95.1 yesterday.
The Japanese yen traded at 108.93 against the dollar after seeing highs almost 108.5 yesterday. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7242 after touching an earlier high of $0.7278.
Oil prices saw some benefits in the afternoon of Asian trade. The international benchmark Brent crude futures contract rose 0.18 percent to $60.95 per barrel while U.S. original futures was largely flat at $53.81 per barrel.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert and Yen Nee Lee contributed to this report.