Asian shares helped by China uplift, Trump's tariff plan hangs in air

Asia shares rose on Thursday, helped by a jump in their Chinese counterparts on Beijing's latest measures to shore up its crumbling stock market, while elsewhere, investors continued to have their eyes on US President Donald Trump's policy plans.

China on Thursday announced a plan to guide hundreds of billions of yuan of new capital from state-owned insurers into stocks each year, in a sign of Beijing's concern about sagging Chinese stocks, which surged on the back of the announcements.

The CSI300 blue-chip index advanced 1.47 per cent shortly after the open, while the Shanghai Composite Index jumped 1.62 per cent.

 

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index similarly gained more than 1 per cent.

"The persistent underperformance of China equities is a barometer of the country's fundamental economic difficulties, along with falling bond yields," said Alvin Tan, head of Asia FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets.

"They point to the domestic difficulties. And US tariffs will worsen the problem especially with China growing more reliant on net exports to power growth."

Trump on Tuesday said his administration was discussing a 10 per cent punitive duty on Chinese imports because fentanyl is being sent from China to the US via Mexico and Canada.

The big moves in Chinese stocks helped lift MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan up 0.11 per cent, reversing its losses from earlier in the sesion.

Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei ticked up 0.47 per cent.

In the broader market, global shares gave up some of the enthusiasm from Trump's mammoth spending plans for artificial intelligence infrastructure that had turbocharged a rally in technology stocks.

Late on Tuesday, he announced a $500 billion private-sector AI infrastructure investment plan from a venture involving Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank, even though there was no clarity on funding.

The Information reported on Wednesday that OpenAI and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank will each commit $19 billion to fund the joint venture.

Shares of SoftBank last traded more than 5 per cent higher.

But US and Europe stock futures edged lower, with Nasdaq futures losing 0.24 per cent while S&P 500 futures dipped 0.11 per cent.

EUROSTOXX 50 futures similarly declined 0.15 per cent.

Tariff Threats

Moves in currencies have been relatively volatile since Trump's reutrn to the White House, owing to his plans around tariffs.

Adding to his threats on Chinese imports, Trump also said Mexico and Canada could face levies of around 25 per cent by Feb. 1.

Similarly, he promised duties on European imports, without elaborating further.

"Economic realities suggest that these tariffs invite retaliation," said Brian Arcese, portfolio manager at Foord Asset Management. "Reciprocal tariffs from trading partners could slow global growth and drive up consumer costs everywhere, not least in the US"

Still, investors cheered that tariffs had not been imposed immediately, which left the dollar broadly on the back foot.

The US dollar index, which measures the currency against six others, dipped 0.03 per cent to 108.25, after having fallen to its lowest level since Jan. 6 at 107.75 in the previous session.

The euro ticked up 0.03 per cent to $1.0412, while sterling hovered near a two-week high and last bought $1.2317.

China's yuan last stood at 7.2779 in the onshore market.

"The threat of tariffs continues to hang over markets, but the rapidly declining half life of headlines shows you the market is already numb to the shenanigans," said Brent Donnelly, president at Spectra Markets.

The dollar fell 0.13 per cent to 156.29 yen, languishing near a one-month low hit earlier in the week.

The Japanese currency has strengthened against the dollar in the past few sessions, supported by growing expectations the Bank of Japan will raise interest rates at the conclusion of its policy meeting on Friday.

In commodities, oil prices eased, pressured in part by concerns on how Trump's proposed tariffs could affect global economic growth and demand for energy.

Brent crude fell 0.16 per cent to $78.87 a barrel, while US crude slipped 0.15 per cent to $75.32 per barrel. [O/R]

Spot gold was steady at $2,754.26 an ounce.