Investing.com – Asian markets were mostly higher in morning trade on Tuesday as recent trade-related concerns seemed to have faded for now.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in a tweet on Monday that he believes his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un would honor an agreement they reached in Singapore last month to pursue denuclearization.
"I have confidence that Kim Jong Un will honor the contract we signed &, even more importantly, our handshake. We agreed to the denuclearization of North Korea," Trump tweeted. "China, on the other hand, may be exerting negative pressure on a deal because of our posture on Chinese Trade-Hope Not!"
Trump’s tweet came one day after North Korea’s Foreign Ministry called a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “regrettable” and accused Washington of making “gangster-like” demands to pressure the country into abandoning its nuclear weapons.
“The U.S. side came up only with its unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearization,” an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman said in statement a few hours after Pompeo’s departure.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.3%, the S&P 500 gained 0.89% and the Nasdaq composite also added 0.9%.
"No new news from the U.S.-Sino trade war has helped investors focus back on fundamentals and with the U.S. earnings season starting later this week, the U.S. has led the gains in equities overnight," Rodrigo Catril, senior foreign exchange strategist at National Australia Bank, said in a note.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei was 1.0% higher by 9:15PM ET (01:15 GMT), while South Korea’s KOSPI climbed 0.7%.
Meanwhile, the resignation of U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson made headlines as the news compounded the chaos in the U.K. government following the departures of Brexit Secretary David Davis and his deputy over the weekend.
Down under, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.04%.
Looking ahead, China is due to report CPI and PPI later in the day. Inflation is expected to come in at 1.9%, compared with May’s 1.8%. Economists expect PPI to expand 4.5%, from last month’s 4.1%.