Investing.com – Asian equities were little changed in morning trade on Wednesday as markets struggled to find key directional drivers.
Overnight, The Dow advanced 1.8%, the S&P 500 rose 1.7% and the Nasdaq added 2.1%. Xi’s speech on Tuesday at the Boao forum continued to be cited as tailwind for equities as it helped ease fears over a trade war between China and the U.S.
Xi promised on Tuesday to further open up its economy and cut import tariffs. In response, U.S. president Trump praised his speech and said he looked forward to making “great progress” with China.
“Very thankful for President Xi of China’s kind words on tariffs and automobile barriers,” Trump said on Twitter. “Also, his enlightenment on intellectual property and technology transfers. We will make great progress together!”
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was in focus as its stocks gained 4.5% after CEO Mark Zuckerberg answered questions from U.S. senators on how the company might be regulated more closely.
"I’ll have my team follow up with you so that way we can have this discussion across the different categories where I think this discussion needs to happen," said Zuckerberg on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, The U.S. dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was unchanged at 89.32 as an uptick in risk appetite weakened demand for the Japanese yen.
The Nikkei 225 traded 0.1% higher by 9:02PM ET (01:02 GMT). Japan’s February core machinery orders unexpectedly rose 2.1%, versus the estimated 2.5% decline. The country’s PPI is due later in the day, followed by China’s CPI and PPI data.
Elsewhere, Australia’s ASX slipped 0.2%, while South Korea’s KOSPI edged up 0.1%.