Asian stock markets were trading broadly higher on Tuesday as lawmakers worldwide began to announce potential options for ending the lockdowns that have stifled the global economy. U.S. President Donald Trump and governors of several states have publicly announced that they are working on plans to ease the lockdowns soon, though health officials caution that premature easing of the restrictions could undermine all the progress that social distancing efforts have made thus far. One roadblock that may be faced in the U.S. is who has the power to end the lockdowns – President Trump claims that he has complete authority, but state governors claim that they are the final decision makers in this regard.
Still, the Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 3.27 percent as of 2:03 p.m. HK/SIN, while China’s benchmark indexes, the Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Composite were both up over 1 percent. South Korea’s Kospi gained 2.01 percent, and Australia’s ASX 200 headed up 1.71 percent. European futures pointed to a higher open across most European markets as well, as traders remained cautiously optimistic that forthcoming decisions would ease the restrictions and start the process of bringing economies back to life.
Also boosting sentiment were reports from China that showed the country’s exports fell only 6.6 percent in March compared to the same period a year earlier, significantly better than the contraction of 14 percent that analysts were expecting. Imports also beat expectations, easing only 0.9 percent though analysts had forecast a drop of 9.5 percent. Analysts are expecting more bad news moving forward, and caution that March’s somewhat positive numbers may not reflect the full state of the economic problems in China, or abroad.
Oil prices also edged up following Monday’s close on cautious optimism about economic openings, but gains were capped due to concerns that the recent OPEC+ oil deal would not do enough to boost prices or limit supply. U.S. WTI futures were up 0.67 percent to $22.56 on Tuesday afternoon in Asia, and Brent crude futures were up 0.98 percent to $32.05.