Asian markets end mostly higher on Thursday

16 Jan 2020 Evaluate

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Thursday, although Chinese shares slipped and the yuan held steady as investors remained cautious about existing tariffs and unresolved issues after the United States and China signed a phase 1 trade deal. The deal reportedly includes Chinese purchase $200 billion worth of US goods and services over the next two years, including up to $50 billion worth of agricultural products. The deal also purportedly addresses issues such as intellectual property theft, forced technology transfers and currency manipulation by China. In exchange, the US will scrap a new round of tariffs and cut tariffs on approximately $120 billion worth of Chinese goods in half to 7.5%. Trump noted a 25% tariff on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports will remain in place in order to give the US leverage as the two countries enter into phase 2 negotiations. Japanese shares closed up after the release of upbeat core machinery orders data. Core machine orders in Japan jumped a seasonally adjusted 18% sequentially in November, the Cabinet Office said on Thursday coming in at 942.7 billion yen, following the 6.0% slide in October. On a yearly basis, core machine orders climbed 5.3 percent, following the 6.1 percent fall in the previous month.

Asian Indices

Last Trade           

Change in Points

Change in %

Shanghai Composite

3,074.08
-15.96
-0.52

Hang Seng

28,883.04
109.45
0.38

Jakarta Composite

6,286.05
2.68
0.04

KLSE Composite

1,587.88

2.74

0.17

Nikkei 225

23,933.13
16.55
0.07

Straits Times

3,278.00
21.02
0.65

KOSPI Composite

2,248.05
17.07
0.77

Taiwan Weighted

12,066.93
-24.95
-0.21

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