Asian markets as investors remain buoyed by trade hopes

Asian markets mostly rose Tuesday following another record close on Wall Street as investors bet on China and the US reaching a mini trade deal despite a report saying Beijing was concerned about the chances of an agreement.

Hong Kong extended Monday's rally with another surge but continuing protests in parts of the city -- particularly a violent standoff at a university -- remained a source of worry.

Regional traders were given another strong lead from Wall Street, where all three main indexes ended at new records on hopes for a good holiday shopping season with the key Black Friday sales day coming next week.

World equities have broadly been on the rise in recent weeks on optimism that the world's top two economies will eventually hammer out a mini trade deal as part of a wider agreement.

However, there have been bumps in the road and the latest came Monday when CNBC reported that China was pessimistic about the chances of a pact because Donald Trump is not in favour of rolling back tariffs.

Trump last week denied claims by Beijing that the two sides had put in place a plan to remove levies as the talks progress.

The report again highlighted the fragile nature of the negotiations.

"Investors have little option but to keep pace with the rapid shifts on the US-China phase-one deal, attempting to make sense of the many comments -- official and from press 'sources' -- on whether a rollback was now genuinely on the table," said Stephen Innes at AxiTrader.

"Ultimately they remain hostage to these developments."
"The more tariff rollbacks we get, the better for market sentiment and global growth outlook."