Market Wrap: Asian Stock Markets Surge In Anticipation Of US-China Trade Deal

Markets across Asia shot up on Monday, as the United States and China hint that phase one of their trade deal is almost finalized.

What Happened

The U.S. President Donald Trump could sign a trade deal with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Iowa by the end of this month, he said at the White House on Friday.

Companies in the U.S. will also soon be able to get approval to trade with the Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Bloomberg on Sunday.

Market Performance

Here’s how stock markets in Asia performed on Monday:
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI traded at an impressive 1.28% gain.

China’s SSE Composite Index (000001.SS) traded 0.75% up, and the Shenzhen Component Index (SHE: 399001) was up by 0.89%.

South Korea’s KOSPI KOSPI added 1.12%. The chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix Inc (KRX: 000660) traded at notable 1.95% and 1.81% gains, respectively.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 XJO added a modest 0.081%. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index NZ closed at 0.37% gain.

Thailand’s SET SET traded 0.95% up.

India’s SENSEX SENSEX was up by 0.47%, and NIFTY 50 NIFTY added 0.56%.

Indonesia’s IDX Composite COMPOSITE gained 0.057%.

Markets in Japan are closed for a national holiday Culture Day.

What's Next

Analysts at the National Australia Bank (NAB) are cautioning that the stock market’s optimism could be short-lived as the US-China trade deal could still collapse. 

“As much as the US-China trade updates continue to point to a Phase 1 deal looking like a certainty, the contentious issues on whether the U.S. will cancel the planned December tariffs and remove some of the current tariffs in line with China’s demands remains an unknown and if the issue is not resolved then a deal could easily collapse,” NAB analysts told Reuters.