Asian stocks rose overnight, with the Nikkei (^N225) climbing 0.8% on the day in Japan, while the Hang Seng (^HSI) gained 0.4% in Hong Kong. The Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) was 0.4% up by the end of the session.
It came as the dollar drifted as higher US tariffs on steel and aluminium took effect, marking the latest chapter in the trade war that has rattled the markets for much of this year.
Today also marks the deadline for US trading partners to submit their proposals for deals, which might help them avoid Trump’s hefty “liberation day” tariffs from taking effect in five weeks.
South Korea’s stocks and its currency also surged as liberal presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung’s election victory raised hopes of swift economic stimulus, market reforms and easing policy uncertainty.
The benchmark Kospi (^KS11) jumped more than 2.7% to its highest since August 2024, putting it on the cusp of entering a bull market. This left the MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan 1% higher.
Meanwhile, Taiwan stocks jumped after artificial intelligence behemoth Nvidia (NVDA) boosted US stocks on Tuesday.
Across the pond on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose 0.5%, to 42,519.64, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.6% to end at 5,970.37, and the Nasdaq (^IXIC) was 0.8% higher at 19,398.96 by the closing bell.
In the bond market, the yield on benchmark 10-year US Treasury notes fell to 4.452%, from 4.462% late on Monday.