Asian markets opened mostly higher on Monday morning with optimism about the upcoming U.S.-Sino trade talks buoying markets. Despite Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 0.20 percent in early trade, most Asian indexes were higher, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index leading the way with a 0.53 percent rise as of 10:16 a.m. HK/SIN. The Shanghai Composite was up 0.14 percent and South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.16 percent.
The meetings between Washington and Beijing set for later this week are expected to pave the way for a meeting between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in November. Nine delegates from China will be attending the meeting with U.S. trade representatives on August 22-23. The U.S. is expected to send lower-level delegates to the talks.
As of now, the U.S. is expected to implement new tariffs on $16 billion of goods. On Friday the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said that it doubled the length of time of companies to testify about the next $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, from the originally planned three days of testimony to six days.
Currency Movements
On the currency markets, the dollar was higher in early Asian trade, trading up 0.02 percent against the yen to 110.52. The dollar was also up against the Canadian dollar, the British pound and the euro. The common currency was trading 0.09 percent lower against the dollar, to $1.1427. The dollar index was up 0.04 percent to 96.17 .DXY. The dollar’s gains continued to be fueled by the struggles of the Turkish lira and optimism that the trade talks will improve relations between the U.S. and China. The euro has been specifically troubled by the lira’s decline due to the close economic ties between the regions.