Stocks in Asia were higher overnight, as investors processed renewed trade tensions between the US and China, with the Nikkei (^N225) rose 1.8% on the day in Japan, while the Hang Seng (^HSI) climbed 2.1% in Hong Kong, after a run of seven consecutive declines.
The Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) was 1.2% up by the end of the session and in South Korea, the Kospi (^KS11) added 2.7% on the day, reaching a record high.
It follows data this morning showing that Chinese CPI came in weaker than expected, with a 0.3% decline in prices in September compared with the previous year. A 0.2% fall was expected.
Meanwhile, PPI inflation was -2.3%, in line with expectations, and marking a 36th consecutive month in deflationary territory.
Across the pond on Wall Street, stocks mostly headed into the red after after Donald Trump said on Truth Social that he might halt trade in cooking oil with China, “in retribution” for Beijing not buying soybeans from the US.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) slipped 0.1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) was 0.8% lower. The Dow Jones (^DJI) gained 0.4%.
It came after Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell signalled more interest rate cuts were on the way. Powell left the door open to further rate cuts on Tuesday and said the end of the central bank’s long-running effort to shrink the size of its holdings may be coming into view.
Solid earnings results from US banking giants and an upward revision of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) 2025 global growth forecast also underpinned the market.