Asian stocks were mixed on Thursday, following a record-setting session on Wall Street, as investors weighed the outcomes of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing. The two leaders met at the Great Hall of the People and discussed US-China relations and Taiwan, though analysts did not anticipate major breakthroughs.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% to 63,448.87, after briefly hitting another all-time intraday high above 63,700, supported by robust corporate earnings. South Korea's Kospi gained 0.5% to 7,884.71, lifted by technology stocks. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.7% to 26,584.88, while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.9% to 4,204.41.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged down less than 0.1% to 8,627.80. Taiwan's Taiex rose 0.6%, and India's Sensex climbed 0.5%. Oil prices traded higher amid the ongoing Iran war, with Brent crude up 0.4% at $106.04 per barrel and US crude also up 0.4% to $101.43 per barrel.
Investors are also monitoring developments regarding China's imports of Nvidia's advanced H200 chips, after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang joined other top executives, including Tesla's Elon Musk and Apple's Tim Cook, on Trump's China trip. On Wednesday, Wall Street saw gains led by technology stocks, with the S&P 500 rising 0.6% to a record 7,444.25 and the Nasdaq composite climbing 1.2% to 26,402.34.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.46% from 4.47%, still significantly above pre-war levels. A report showed US wholesale prices surged in April due to the Iran war-driven energy shock. The US Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh as the new Federal Reserve chair, replacing Jerome Powell. The US dollar fell to 157.85 Japanese yen, and the euro traded at $1.1715.
