Shares advanced in early European trading Tuesday after a mixed session in Asia as investors awaited fresh developments in trade talks between the United States and China, The Associated Press reported.
France’s CAC 40 added 0.3% to 5,945.15, while Germany’s DAX rose 0.4% to 13,259.55. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.4% to 7,339.84. U.S. shares were set to drift higher with Dow futures up 0.2% at 28,069. S&P 500 futures were also up 0.2% at 3,127.00.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 0.5% to finish at 23,292.65. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.7% to 6,814.20. South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.3% to 2,153.24. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.6% to 27,093.80, while the Shanghai Composite index jumped nearly 0.9% to 2,933.99.
Chinese indexes rose as political protests in Hong Kong quieted somewhat, with police tightening a blockade at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Hundreds of demonstrators who left the campus after a violent weekend were arrested.
Strong economic data and better corporate earnings than expected have buoyed U.S. shares since early October, AP adds.
But the on-again, off-again negotiations between Beijing and Washington over their trade dispute remain a wild card for the markets.
“Risk sentiment can be seen little changed amid the conflicting reports on US-China trade as we remain in a very headline driven reality,” said Jingyi Pan, market strategist at IG in Singapore.
In a boost for technology stocks, especially chip makers, the Commerce Department gave another 90-day extension for Chinese tech giant Huawei to continue doing business with U.S. companies.
President Donald Trump earlier ordered that U.S. manufacturers stop supplying key components to Huawei on the grounds that it is a security risk. But the government has not shown evidence of that, and many American companies have sought exclusions to the rule for the sake of their own businesses.
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