Investing.com - Asian equities traded higher in morning trade on Wednesday, with the exception of Australia’s ASX 200, which slipped slightly.
China’s Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component gained 1% and 1.3% respectively by 10:30 PM ET (03:30 GMT). Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.9%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 extended its gains from Tuesday and rose 1.6%. South Korea’s KOSPI edged up 0.4%.
Down under, Australia’ ASX 200 slipped 0.3% despite a 1.5% gain for the energy segment. Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) jumped as much as 6% after the company announced a better-than-expected earnings report.
Ongoing Sino-U.S. trade negotiations continued to dominate headlines today. U.S. President Donald Trump said he might let a March 1 deadline for a tariff increase on Chinese goods “slide for a little while” if the two sides get close to a deal, although he said he “would prefer not to” postpone the deadline.
That contradicted earlier comments from the White House that described March 1 as a "hard deadline."
Trump also said Beijing "very much wants to make a deal," and he has "a big team" in China trying to reach a resolution.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will meet Chinese Vice Premier Liu He for another round of trade talks on Thursday and Friday this week.
"The pendulum on whether a US-China trade deal could be struck has been swinging with US President Donald Trump's comments on his on/off meeting with China President Xi Jinping to extending talks beyond the 1st of March. The extension will only be possible if China accedes to US's push for enforcement mechanisms on areas such as forced technology transfer and intellectual property protection," DBS Group Research said in a morning note today that was cited by CNBC.