Investing.com – Asian markets were mixed in morning trade on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump reached an agreement with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that helped eased global trade tension.
The two sides agreed to expand European imports of U.S. liquefied natural gas and soybeans and reduce industrial tariffs on both sides.
“We had a big day, very big,” Trump said at a joint statement with Juncker at the White House on Wednesday.
Overnight, The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 172.16 points to close at 25,414.10, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.2%, and the S&P 500 gained 0.9%.
In China, the Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component fell 0.2% and 0.4% by 9:45PM ET (01:45 GMT) on Thursday in Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index also fell 0.2%.
Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg on Wednesday that a global trade war would have no winner, and the people supporting it “will only end up hurting themselves.”
Xi then urged Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to jointly reject unilateralism and protectionism. “The current international order is not perfect, but as long as it pursues a win-win situation for all countries, it must not be discarded as one pleases,” Xi said. “We should pursue inclusive growth. Uneven development is a common challenge. Developed countries must increase support to developing countries.”
Separately, reports citing people familiar with the matter said the People’s Bank of China told some local institutions that the so-called “structural parameter” in the Macro-Prudential Assessment of their balance sheets would be reduced by around 0.5%, as the central bank attempted to support local financial institutions amid increasing risks to the economy from trade war with the U.S.
Elsewhere, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.2%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.1%.
South Korea’s KOSPI rose 0.6%. SK Hynix Inc (KS:000660) received some focus after the company said its second-quarter operating profit rose 83% from a year earlier, beating market estimates. April-June profit was 5.6 trillion won ($5 billion), compared with expectations of 5.4 trillion won, according to a statement.