Asian Markets Extend Gains On US Trade Deal Hopes
Investors have been on a roll in recent weeks on bets that governments will eventually hammer out pacts with Donald Trump ahead of the US president's August 1 deadline.
The mood has been upbeat since news that Japan had reached a deal to lower sweeping tariffs from 25 percent to 15 percent, including those on the country's crucial car sector.
The breakthrough fanned hopes that others were in the pipeline.
However, there is talk that the European Union is edging towards an agreement. Reports say Brussels could get something similar to Japan, with tariffs cut to 15 percent -- from the threatened 30 percent.
The Financial Times said the two would waive tariffs on some products, including aircraft, spirits and medical devices.
That came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said negotiations were making progress, with talks planned later in the day between the bloc's top trade negotiator and his American counterpart.
Analysts said a deal with Washington's biggest trading entity would provide a massive boost to equities
However, failure to reach a deal, triggering Trump's 30 percent levies on August 1, could cause havoc on markets, analysts warned.
France has been loudest in insisting Brussels must show it is willing to deploy its trade weapon, known as the anti-coercion instrument -- allowing officials to take measures such as import and export restrictions on goods and services.
Neil Wilson at Saxo Markets warned that would end up "effectively killing trade between the two... the nuclear option is on the table it seems, but for the moment expectation seems to be veering towards a deal".
After another record day for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq on Wall Street, Asia picked up the baton and ran.
Tokyo piled on two percent, having jumped more than three percent Wednesday on the trade deal, while Hong Kong continued its standout year with another advance.
Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore, Wellington, Taipei and Manila also rose.
Traders are also keeping an eye on developments in Tokyo after Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba denied discussing his resignation with party elders on Wednesday, as speculation about his future intensified following a weekend election debacle.
Despite the saga, the yen extended its gains, briefly hitting 145.86 per dollar as the trade deal allows investors to turn their attention to the Bank of Japan's policy meeting next week hoping for guidance on its next interest rate hike.
The unit had been sitting around 147.90 before the deal.
Bank officials have held off rocking the boat on the issue amid tariff uncertainty, but observers say the agreement can allow them to reconsider lifting in October.
Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 2.0 percent at 41,983.50 (break)
Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.3 percent at 25,606.58
Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.2 percent at 3,588.11
Dollar/yen: DOWN at 146.06 yen from 146.47 yen on Wednesday
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1772 from $1.1777
Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3582 from $1.3579
Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.66 pence from 86.68 pence
West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.3 percent at $65.47 per barrel
Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.3 percent at $68.71 per barrel
New York - Dow: UP 1.1 percent at 45,010.29 (close)
London - FTSE 100: UP 0.4 percent at 9,061.49 (close)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
DW
5 minutes ago
- DW
Trump says New York shooting suspect was a 'crazed lunatic' – DW – 07/29/2025
US President Donald Trump said a shooting that killed four people in a New York skyscraper was "a senseless act of violence." Police are investigating possible grievances the suspect, who also died, had against the NFL. US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said a mass shooting that killed four people in New York was carried out by a "lunatic." According to police, the suspect, who shot dead four people before taking his own life, had a "documented mental health history." And Trump was keen to focus on that angle, as he posted on social media: "I trust our Law Enforcement Agencies to get to the bottom of why this crazed lunatic committed such a senseless act of violence." Trump said that he had been briefed on late Monday's incident that occurred in a Manhattan skyscraper. One of those killed was an off-duty police officer. Another person was seriously injured and in a critical condition. The US president did not mention gun laws in the United States, preferring to focus on the alleged gunman's condition. But New York Mayor Eric Adams did hone in on "how easy it is to gain access to a gun." "Gun violence has scarred so many neighbors and ripped apart too many families across this entire country," Adams said during a press briefing. The shooter was identified by police as 27-year-old Shane T. from Las Vegas, a once-promising American football player, who was reportedly carrying a note that referred to CTE — a form of brain damage from contact sports. The attack took place at the tower housing the headquarters of the National Football League (NFL). Mayor Adams suggested the gunman was targeting the NFL for long-held grievances related to his condition. "He seemed to have blamed the NFL," the mayor said in an interview with New York City station WPIX-TV. "The NFL headquarters was located in the building, and he mistakenly went up the wrong elevator bank." The NYPD officer killed in the shooting was identified as Didarul Islam, who was born in Bangladesh. "He died as he lived. A hero," Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, before adding he was married with two young boys, and his wife is pregnant with their third child.
Int'l Business Times
2 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
Fossil-fuel Pledge In EU-Trump Deal Sparks Climate Fears
The EU is promising colossal new US fossil fuel purchases under its trade deal with President Donald Trump, raising concerns for the bloc's climate fight -- should the mammoth pledges come true. As part of the framework agreed Sunday, the EU said its companies would buy $750 billion of liquefied natural gas, oil and nuclear fuels from the United States -- split equally over three years -- to replace Russian energy sources. Many experts believe the eye-watering figure to be unrealistic -- and point out that market dynamics rather than EU policymakers dictate companies' energy choices. Even on the supply side, Simone Tagliapietra of the Bruegel think-tank noted that the United States might not be able to build the additional export capacity within such a short time frame. Brussels insists the number was not plucked out of thin air to keep Trump happy, but was based on an analysis of energy needs as it phases out Russian imports because of the Ukraine war between now and 2027. The proposed increase would mean more than tripling annual energy imports from the United States -- about $70 billion last year -- and equate to well over half the 378 billion euros' worth of overall EU energy imports last year. A large part of the EU's additional billions would go to imports of LNG, which is transported in liquid state to European ports before being converted back to gaseous form and injected into the bloc's power network. The United States currently account for about half of the EU's LNG imports, ahead of Russia on 20 percent -- a figure Brussels wants to cut to zero to choke off income that helps fund the war in Ukraine. But environmental groups warn against a massive switch to American LNG extracted in part though hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which uses explosives to create cracks in rock formations to release oil and gas deposits. The highly polluting process comes with steep costs to both the climate and local environment, and is banned in a number of European countries. "The Commission risks replacing one disastrous dependency with another -- unplugging Putin's gas and plugging in Trump's," Greenpeace warned when the EU's phase-out plans were presented. Francois Gemenne, a policy expert who co-authored the UN's most recent IPCC report on climate change, in 2023, accused the EU of "submission" to Trump's pro-fossil fuel agenda. Elected on a promise to "drill, baby drill," the US leader is openly hostile to renewable energy efforts and lashed out again at windmills "ruining" the landscape before meeting with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland last weekend. For Aymeric Kouam of the Strategic Perspectives think-tank, the energy deal with Trump is both "dangerous and counterproductive" and imperils its goal to become carbon neutral by 2050. "Tying Europe's energy future to the US as a main supplier undermines the bloc's energy security strategy, anchored in supply diversification, renewable energy development, and energy efficiency increase," he said. The EU pushed back at the charge on Tuesday. "This agreement does not contradict our medium- to long-term decarbonisation objectives or targets at all," a commission spokesperson told reporters of the three-year energy pledge. The Trump trade deal comes as the EU debates its 2040 emissions-reduction target, a key step towards its net zero goal. The commission has proposed a target of cutting emissions by 90 percent compared to 1990 levels, but with new flexibilities to win over reluctant member states. The EU says it has already cut climate-warming emissions by 37 percent relative to 1990, but its green agenda faces pushback with a rightward shift and rising climate scepticism in many European countries.
Int'l Business Times
3 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
Russia Kills 25 In Ukraine, As Kremlin Says 'Committed' To Peace
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it wanted to pursue peace in Ukraine hours after mounting attacks that killed at least 25 people, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman and more than a dozen prison inmates. The strikes on several regions came hours after US President Donald Trump issued Moscow with a new deadline to end its grinding invasion of Ukraine -- now in its fourth year -- or face tough new sanctions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of purposefully targeting a prison in the Zaporizhzhia region -- that Russia claims as its own -- killing 16 people and wounding more than 40 others. "It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility," Zelensky said on social media in response. The Kremlin denied that claim. "The Russian army does not strike civilian targets," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including from AFP. Peskov added that Moscow had "taken note" of Trump's new deadline and told journalists that it remained "committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and secure our interests." Ukraine's justice ministry said Moscow's forces hit the prison with four glide bombs, while police said 16 inmates were killed and 43 were wounded. Bricks and debris were strewn on the ground around buildings with blown-out windows, according to images released by the ministry. The facility's perimeter was intact and there was no threat that inmates would escape, it added. Rescue workers were seen searching for survivors in pictures released by the region's emergency services. The source added there were no Russian war prisoners being held at the centre. Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said the Zaporizhzhia attack was further evidence of Russian "war crimes". "People held in places of detention do not lose their right to life and protection," he wrote on social media. In addition to the glide bomb attack, the Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched 37 drones and two missiles overnight, adding that its air defence systems had downed 32 of the drones. Zelensky said that among the separate attacks, Russian forces had targeted a hospital in the town of the Kamyanske in the Dnipropetrovsk region. "Three people were killed in the attack, including a pregnant woman. Her name was Diana. She was only 23-years-old," Zelensky said. Separate strikes in the eastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia killed six people, regional authorities said. In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, the region's acting governor said. Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia's summer offensive, which has made fresh advances into areas largely spared since the start of the invasion in 2022. The Russian defence ministry claimed fresh advances across the sprawling front line on Tuesday, saying its forces had taken control of two more villages -- one in the Donetsk region, and another in the Zaporizhzhia region. The prison strike on Tuesday came on the three-year anniversary of a attack on another detention facility in occupied Ukrainian territory that Kyiv blamed on Moscow and that was reported to have killed dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers. Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the strike over the night of July 29 three years ago on the detention centre in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, which the Kremlin says is part of Russia. Ukraine says that dozens of its soldiers who laid down their arms after a long Russian siege of the port city of Mariupol were killed in that attack on the Olenivka detention facility. Russia has been ramping up its air attacks against Ukraine AFP Ukrainians gathered this week to mark the third anniversary of the Olenivka prison attack AFP
