Investing.com - Asian equities turned positive in afternoon trade on Wednesday as investors await China’s response to 25% tariffs on about $50 billion worth of Chinese products proposed by Trump’s administration.
Overnight, the three major U.S. stock indexes ended higher after a choppy session, with the S&P 500 gained 1.3% while the Dow and the Nasdaq jumped 1.7% and 1.0% respectively.
A recovery in U.S. equities were largely overshadowed by the U.S.’s issue of its list of Chinese products for tariffs. Asian equities traded mostly lower earlier in the day but recovered from their intraday lows in afternoon trades.
In China, the Shanghai Composite gained 0.7% while the Shenzhen Component inched 0.6% higher by 1:24AM ET (05:24 GMT). Reports that the U.S. slapped $50 billion tariffs on some 1,300 industrial technology, transport and medical products that are made in China remained in focus.
In response, the Chinese embassy in Washington said “it is only polite to reciprocate." “The Chinese side will resort to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism and take corresponding measures of equal scale and strength against U.S. products in accordance with Chinese law," the embassy said in a statement. It was reported on Tuesday that China imposed retaliatory tariffs on 128 U.S. products including pork and fruit.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 traded 0.4% higher. Bank of Japan’s Kuroda said on late Tuesday that the central bank is in talks over an exit from its huge stimulus program, reiterating that his target is still to achieve 2% inflation. The yen strengthened sharply following his words but almost immediately gave up its gains.
Meanwhile, the countries’ Markit/Nikkei Japan Services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) fell to 50.9 in March on a seasonally adjusted basis from 51.7 in February, indicating that activity in Japan’s service sector grew at the slowest pace in 17 months.
Elsewhere, the KOSPI underperformed its regional peers and was down 1.4%. Samsung (KS:005930) made headlines after reports suggested that South Korea prosecutors are investigating claims that the company sabotaged efforts to set up labor unions.
Down under, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.1%. The country’s retail sales rose 0.6% in February, following a 0.2% gain in January. Overall Building permits on the other hand fell by 6.2% to 18,700 in February.