Asian shares gain as investors await progress in China-US trade talks.
TOKYO — Shares rose in Asia on Monday as investors awaited signs the U.S. and China could be making progress in negotiations on resolving the trade war between the two biggest economies.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.0 percent to 29,305.33, while the Shanghai Composite jumped 2 percent to 3,082.39.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.6 percent to 21,584.50. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3 percent to 6,190.50. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.2 percent to 2,179.68.
China’s congress on Friday endorsed an investment law that aims to address complaints, particularly from the U.S., that China’s system is rigged against foreign companies. The U.S. claims China forces companies to share technology in order to do business in the country.
The lack of any major upsets in the talks has calmed frazzled nerves, but that could change.
“U.S.-China trade war concerns were a major factor of a global growth downgrade,” said Alfonso Esparza, an analyst with Oanda. “While comments from both sides have been positive, there have been few details on where negotiations stand. The delay could once again spark anxiety in the market.”
Wall Street ended last week on an upbeat note, with the S&P 500 gaining 0.5 percent Friday to 2,822.48, a new high for the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.5 percent to 25,848.87. The Nasdaq composite climbed 0.8 percent, to 7,688.53. The S&P 500’s gain was 0.5 percent. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies picked up 3.90 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,553.54.
U.S. stocks have had a strong showing this year, with all the major indexes gaining at least 10 percent.
Traders are also confident that the Federal Reserve will hold off on any action that could jeopardize economic growth. The central bank, which signaled in January that it was hitting pause on its rate hikes amid a slowdown in global growth and weak inflation, is holding a meeting of policymakers this week.
CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 111.57 Japanese yen from 111.48 yen on Friday. The euro strengthened to $1.1339 from $1.1326.
ENERGY: The price of U.S. crude oil slipped 12 cents to $58.40 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It slipped 0.2 percent to settle last week at $58.52 a barrel. Brent crude gained 3 cents to $67.19 a barrel.