Allocates in Asia were mixed in Thursday afternoon trade, as the U.S. takes aim at China’s Huawei again, heating up trade tensions in addition.
Mainland Chinese shares recovered from their earlier slip to rise by the afternoon, with the Shanghai composite amplifying around 0.3% and the Shenzhen composite gaining 0.228%.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index also turned in all directions from from earlier declines to rise 0.24%.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan slipped 0.71% in afternoon trade, while the Topix declined 0.61%. Over and beyond in South Korea, the Kospi fell 0.86%.
Australia’s ASX 200 rose 0.22% as most sectors advanced.
Asia-Pacific Stock Exchange Indexes Chart
Shares of automakers in Asia were mixed on Thursday, with South Korea’s Hyundai Motor runner 0.39% and Kia Motors jumping 1.55%. Over in Japan, Nissan advanced 0.25%, while Toyota dropped 1.28%.
The deeds came following reports that U.S. President Donald Trump plans to postpone auto tariffs by up to six months.
Deal tensions, however, continued to weigh on investor sentiment as Trump declared a national emergency over threats against American technology.
Go after the order, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the addition of Huawei Technologies and its affiliates to the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Entity Heel over, making it more difficult for the Chinese telecom giant to conduct business with U.S. companies.
Analysts at Eurasia Accumulation described the Trump administration’s move as a “grave escalation with China.”
“Today’s events will be highly disruptive to US-China neckties at a particularly delicate time in the relationship. China will view this as an openly hostile act and a major provocation,” they noted in a note. “We will be closely monitoring Beijing’s response at a time when nationalist sentiment appears to be hardening.”
“Beijing is unthinkable to continue serious trade negotiations when it feels held hostage by the US. Even if negotiations do proceed, in this inhospitable climate Beijing is even more unlikely to make significant concessions to the US, especially on the technology issues at the heart of the business dispute,” they said.
Meanwhile, the recent release of weaker-than-expected economic data stoked fears that the U.S.-China career war is dragging down global economic growth.
U.S. retail sales fell 0.2% in April, the Commerce Department about Wednesday. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected an increase of 0.2%. Over in China, data released Wednesday mortified the country’s industrial output and retail sales growth for April also coming in below expectations.
Those numerals came amid a recent re-escalation in trade tensions between Beijing and Washington, starting with the U.S. raising schedule of charges on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports last week. In retaliation, China hiked tariffs on $60 billion good of U.S. goods earlier this week. The U.S. also raised the possibility of slapping tariffs on an additional $300 billion in goods from China.
The U.S. dollar forefinger, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 97.534 after seeing highs above 97.6 yesterday.
The Japanese yen traded at 109.47 against the dollar step into the shoes of a turbulent session yesterday that saw it swinging below 109.2 and above 109.6. The Australian dollar changed give ups at $0.6914, having earlier slipped to a low of $0.6891 after the release of employment data Down Under.
Oil prices boost in the afternoon of Asian trading hours, with the international benchmark Brent crude futures contract adding 0.53% to $72.15 per barrel, while U.S. indelicate futures gained 0.68% to $62.44 per barrel.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert and Tucker Higgins contributed to this probe.