Most Asian stocks rise as US tariffs give breathing space

The president has unveiled a range of hardball measures to bring an end to what he says is years of countries taking advantage of the United States, fuelling trade war fears and leading to warnings of another inflation spike.

However, investor sentiment has largely held up on hopes that many of the tariffs can be rowed back with negotiations, while Trump’s announcement of plans to hold Ukraine peace talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has added some optimism.

The Republican said Thursday he had decided to impose fresh reciprocal duties on trading partners, telling reporters that US allies were often “worse than our enemies” on trade, calling the European Union “absolutely brutal”.

“Whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them,” he added.

However, commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick said studies on where and who to hit should be completed by April 1, and the tariffs could start the day after — providing some relief to investors.

“Tariff ambiguity still reigns, but market are currently drawing some comfort from the news the next set won’t come into effect before April, thereby instilling some hope they could yet be negotiated away (or down),” said National Australia Bank’s head of forex research and markets Ray Attrill.

The move came days after Trump signed executive orders imposing new 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium, due to come into effect on March 12.

Observers said there appeared to be a feeling on trading floors that the measures were being used as a negotiating tactic by the White House.

Asian markets enjoyed a broadly positive end to the week.

Hong Kong gained more than one percent, with Sydney, Seoul, Wellington and Manila following suit.

Tokyo dropped despite a surge in Sony following a healthy earnings report as well as rallies in Nissan and Honda a day after they confirmed the scrapping of merger talks.

Shanghai, Singapore and Taipei also fell.

That came after a strong performance on Wall Street fuelled by a rally in the tech sector. The S&P 500 ended just short of a record and the Nasdaq put on more than two percent.

New York traders were largely unmoved by a forecast-topping rise in US wholesale prices last month, which followed Wednesday’s report on the consumer price index that also came in above expectations and dented hopes for another interest rate cut.

Key figures around 0230 GMT

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.4 percent at 39,287.30 (break)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.8 percent at 22,195.99

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.2 percent at 3,325.92

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0461 from $1.0467 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2567 from $1.2586

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 152.56 yen from 152.76 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 83.24 pence from 83.28 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.3 percent at $71.48 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.4 percent at $75.28 per barrel

New York – Dow: UP 0.8 percent at 44,711.43 (close)

London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.5 percent at 8,764.72 (close)