Investing.com – Asian equity markets opened mixed on Thursday morning as Washington proposed a new round of trade talks with Beijing that could help to de-escalate a trade war between the two.
U.S. officials, led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin recently invited counterparts in China to Washington.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said the country is taking a tough stance on China. Last Friday, Trump threatened to slap tariffs on virtually all Chinese goods.
“It’s[the trade talk] a positive thing. We are in communication right now and you could say that communication has picked up a notch,” said Larry Kudlow, the director of Trump’s National Economic Council.
The Trump administration has sought to pressure China to reduce its trade surplus with the U.S. and protect intellectual property rights of American companies. Washington has imposed tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese exports since July, which triggered retaliation from Beijing.
Overnight, the potential trade talks helped support the U.S. stock market, with the S&P 500 closing up 0.04% and Dow Jones Industrial Average edging up 0.11%. Tech stocks remained troubled. Although Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced new iPhones, tech stocks closed 1% lower.
Chipmakers dropped as Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Stifel downgraded a few companies amidst industry concerns, offsetting the gains from the cheerful mood, leaving Nasdaq Composite closing down 0.23%.
China’s stock market opened higher, with the Shanghai Composite rising 0.23% at 10:44PM ET (02:44 GMT) but the technology-heavy SZSE Component climbed 0.11%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, which has been gripped by a bearish trend, jumped 1.33%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.79% and South Korea’s KOSPI also rose 0.13%. Down under, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.52%.
Australia is due to release its employment data on Thursday, while the Bank of England and the European Central Bank will reach policy decisions on Thursday afternoon.