Asian shares soar as upbeat signals ease trade tensions

Asian shares soar as upbeat signals ease trade tensions

Asian shares rose on Wednesday as upbeat signals from Sino-U.S. trade talks fanned hopes of an easing of tariff tensions.

The positive mood pushed Wall Street indexes to fresh record-closing highs on Tuesday and stoked confidence in Asia as MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (MIAPJ0000PUS) up 0.19%. Australian shares (AXJO) climbed 0.65% and Japan’s Nikkei (N225) rose 0.36%.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Washington and Beijing were close to agreement on the “first phase” of a trade deal. However, while Trump said the United States was in the “final throes” of work on a trade deal with Beijing, he also underscored U.S. support for protesters in Hong Kong who saw it as a sore point.