Investing.com - Asian stocks inched up in morning trade on Tuesday, with Chinese equities gaining about 0.5% even after U.S. President Donald Trump said he is likely to increase tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump said he expects to move ahead with raising tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25% from 10% currently.
Trump said it was "highly unlikely" he would accept China's request to hold off on the increase, planned for Jan. 1. The comments ran counter to recent speculation about a possible deal when Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires later this week.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock declined 2% in after-hours trading after Trump said the new tariffs could hit iPhones and laptops imported from China. The rate could be either 10% or 25%, Trump added.
"Maybe. Maybe. Depends on what the rate is," the president told the WSJ about the possible iPhone and laptop tariffs. "I mean, I can make it 10%, and people could stand that very easily."
Apple’s products are currently exempt from the tariffs. Shares of the company’s Asia-listed suppliers were mixed on Tuesday. Hon Hai Precision was down 0.7%, while Pegatron inched up 0.4%.
China’s Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component were up 0.4% and 0.5% respectively by 10:50PM ET (03:50 GMT).
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was little changed at 26,361.00.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 traded 0.7% higher. Chat app operator Line Corp (T:3938) was up almost 9% on reports that it is teaming up with Hong Kong-listed Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK:0700) to offer mobile payment services for small Japanese retailers.
Elsewhere, South Korea’s KOSPI was up 0.6%.
Down under, Australia’s ASX 200 gained 1.0%.