*Stocks in Asia trade higher after US and China postpone tariff escalation*
- Stocks in Australia, Japan and South Korea gained in morning trade.
- Over the weekend, Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to a temporary pause on escalating the ongoing trade war between the two economic powerhouses.
Stocks in Asia traded higher Monday morning after Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to a temporary trade truce between the United Statesand China.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.18 percent in early trade while the Topix index advanced 1.27 percent. In South Korea, the Kospi gained 1.34 percent.
Over in Australia, the ASX 200 jumped 1.37 percent in morning trade with almost all sectors in positive territory.
*Trump and Xi hit pause*
The moves in Asia came after Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to a momentary pause on escalating the ongoing trade war between the two economic powerhouses.
A White House statement about the leaders’ dinner at the G-20 summit in Argentina said Xi and Trump discussed a range of nettlesome issues — among them the trade dispute that has left over $200 billion worth of goods hanging in the balance.
“President Trump has agreed that on January 1, 2019, he will leave the tariffs on $200 billion worth of product at the 10 percent rate, and not raise it to 25 percent at this time,” the statement read. Over the next 90 days, American and Chinese officials will continue to negotiate lingering disagreements on technology transfer, intellectual property and agriculture.
On the back of that development, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures jumped 400 points shortly after the start of trading at 6 p.m. in New York on Sunday.
*Oil prices surge after November slump*
Oil prices saw strong gains Monday morning during Asian trading hours. The international benchmark Brent surged 2.72 % to $61.08 per barrel. U.S. crude futures jumped 3.26 percent to $52.59 per barrel.
West Texas Intermediate, or U.S. crude, lost 21 percent in November, tumbling to its lowest level in a year and logging its worst performance since October 2008.
*Currencies*
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 97.107 after touching highs above 97.5 last week.
The Japanese yen, widely seen as a safe-haven currency, was at 113.66 against the dollar after touching highs around the 112.9 handle in the previous trading week. The Australian dollar traded at $0.7350 after touching lows around $0.72 last week.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the yuan reference rate at 6.9431 vs Friday’s fix of 6.9357.
