December 03, 2018: Hong Kong and Shanghai led a surge across Asian markets Monday after the United States agreed to suspend imposing tariffs on China for three months, while oil prices soared on expectations of a big production cut.
In a much-anticipated meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the weekend, the heads of the world's two biggest economies hammered out a deal that will see them hold off on their tit-for-tat tariffs row, which has roiled global equities for most of the year.
The US will hold off raising levies on Chinese goods on January 1 while China promised to buy more from the US and enter a 90-day period of talks to bring an end to the dispute.
If the negotiations, fail tariffs will jump from 10 percent now to 25 percent.
Trump hailed the meeting — held on the sidelines of the G20 in Buenos Aires — as “amazing and productive… with unlimited possibilities for both the United States and China”.
The news lit a fuse under Asian markets, with Hong Kong and Shanghai each rallying more than two percent, while the Chinese yuan, which has tumbled this year on worries about the trade row, jumped.
Tokyo climbed 1.4 percent by the break, Sydney and Seoul each rose 1.6 percent, Singapore was 1.9 percent higher and Taipei piled on two percent.
“This is the best outcome that we had hoped for out of this meeting,” said Frances Cheung, head of Asia macro strategy at Westpac Banking Corp.
(APP)
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