[HONG KONG] Asian markets largely rose on Friday, tracking Wall Street gains, as China said it was considering a US offer to negotiate steep tariffs.
US markets forged higher on Thursday following strong results from tech giants Microsoft and Meta that helped offset lingering economic worries.
Apple reported first-quarter profit above expectations but warned that US tariffs could cost the company and were disrupting its supply chain.
And Amazon reported a nine per cent rise in first-quarter revenue, but its outlook fell as potential impact from the US-China trade war rattled investors.
Washington’s punishing levies reached 145 per cent on many Chinese products in April, while Beijing has responded with fresh 125 per cent duties on imports from the United States.
On Friday, China’s commerce ministry said it was evaluating a US offer for negotiations on tariffs, but wanted Washington to show “sincerity” and be ready to scrap levies that have roiled global markets and supply chains.
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US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that China has reached out for talks on the tariffs, and this week said he believed there was a “very good chance we’re going to make a deal”.
Dozens of countries face a 90-day deadline expiring in July to strike an agreement with Washington and avoid higher, country-specific rates.
Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said Beijing and Washington were now “waving detente flags” in their spiralling trade war.
Beijing’s demand for sincerity was an apparent call to ditch the 145 per cent rate, before holding serious talks, Innes said in a note on Friday.
“But dig a layer deeper, and the path is still littered with landmines,” he added.
In Asia trading on Friday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up more than one per cent in the morning, while Japan’s main Nikkei index gained about 0.6 per cent.
Japan’s envoy for US tariff talks said in Washington on Thursday that a second round of negotiations between the two countries had been “frank and constructive”.
Japan, a key US ally and its biggest investor, is subject to the same 10 per cent baseline tariffs imposed on most nations plus steeper levies on cars, steel and aluminium.
The Bank of Japan warned earlier that tariffs were fuelling global economic uncertainty and revised down its growth forecasts while keeping its key interest rate steady.
Traders are looking ahead to US jobs data on Friday for April for indications of the US central bank’s path for interest rates. AFP
