Asian markets settled mostly higher on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street’s gains overnight after the US President Donald Trump backed down from threats to dismiss Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and also signaled that 145% tariffs on Chinese imports will come down substantially. Hong Kong shares surged on hopes of easing US-China trade tensions. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was reported earlier on Tuesday saying that there will be a de-escalation in US-China trade tensions, but negotiations with China have not yet started and would be a slog. Japanese shares rose sharply on weaker yen, while Tesla founder Elon Musk announced that he would significantly scale back his Trump administration work in May to focus on Tesla. However, Chinese shares declined as the IMF slashed its China growth forecast for this year to 4%, well below China’s official target.
| Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,296.36 | -3.40 | -0.10 |
| Hang Seng | 22,072.62 | 510.30 | 2.31 |
| Jakarta Composite | 6,634.38 | 96.11 | 1.45 |
| KLSE Composite | 1,501.19 | 14.94 | 1.01 |
| Nikkei 225 | 34,868.63 | 648.03 | 1.86 |
| Straits Times | 3,832.32 | 36.91 | 0.96 |
| KOSPI Composite | 2,525.56 | 38.92 | 1.54 |
| Taiwan Weighted | 19,639.14 | 845.71 | 4.31 |
