(Bloomberg) -- Stocks were mixed in Asia as investors contemplated President Donald Trump’s latest tariff moves against an array of trading partners, with a key Dec. 15 deadline looming for Chinese imports.
Equity benchmarks opened lower across the region in the wake of the biggest slide on Wall Street in eight weeks, but pared losses as the session wore on. Hong Kong and Shanghai were almost unchanged, while futures on the S&P 500 Index rose. Australia’s dollar climbed after its central bank held its key interest rate and highlighted that past easing is having an impact. Aussie bonds dropped, adding to a global slump in government bonds Monday.
Trump on Monday slapped steel tariffs on Brazil and Argentina, and proposed new levies on France. The moves come amid a continued lack of closure on a U.S.-China trade deal, with the next round of tariff hikes on Chinese goods less than two weeks away.
“It looks like it’s going to be pushed to the beginning of next year at the best case,” Steve Brice, chief investment strategist at Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) private bank, said on Bloomberg TV with regard to a U.S.-China trade agreement. The message to investors is “maybe trim a little bit of equity exposure, or certainly not chase the market at this stage. But look to do so in the next few weeks if we see a 5-to-7% pullback.”
Elsewhere, oil extended gains from Monday as traders gauge the probability of OPEC and allied producers tightening supplies when they meet later this week.
Here are some key events coming up this week:
- Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering is scheduled to be priced on Thursday.
- Friday brings the U.S. jobs report, where estimates are for non-farm payrolls to rise by 190,000 in November.
Stocks
- Topix index declined 0.5% as of 1:16 p.m. in Tokyo.
- Australia S&P/ASX 200 Index tumbled 2.3%.
- South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.5%.
- Hang Seng Index fell 0.2%.
- Shanghai Composite was down 0.1%.
- Futures on the S&P 500 Index rose 0.2%.
- Futures on the Euro Stoxx 50 gained 0.3%.
- The yen dipped 0.2% to 109.18 per dollar.
- The offshore yuan was at 7.0397 per dollar.
- The euro was at $1.1077.
- Britain’s pound was at $1.2940.
- The Aussie dollar rose 0.3% to 68.41 U.S. cents.
- The yield on 10-year Treasuries edged up to 1.83% after climbing four basis points Monday.
- Australian 10-year yields rose about seven basis points to 1.17%.
- West Texas Intermediate crude was up 0.3% at $56.15 a barrel.
- Gold was little changed at $1,461.38 an ounce.