The main stock market indices of the Asia-Pacific region were on the rise on Wednesday, with the exception of China.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 index was down 1.0 percent at 8:00 a.m. Finland time, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 1.6 percent after the US president Donald Trump underlined that tariffs on China are still on the table.
The Trump administration is considering 10 percent import tariffs on goods coming from China, and the tariffs could go into effect as early as early February.
Chinese tariffs would remain lower than the planned 25 percent tariff for neighboring countries Canada and Mexico.
During the election campaign, Trump threatened to impose tariffs of up to 60 percent on Chinese products, and after his election victory, he also talked about an additional ten percent tariff.
Regarding the additional tariff, Trump appealed, among other things, to the fact that China smuggles fentanyl and the chemicals needed to make it into Canada and Mexico. Trump also referred to fentanyl on Tuesday when talking about Chinese tariffs.
In addition to the customs speeches, Trump announced on Tuesday a large artificial intelligence project, which is led by Softbank, OpenAI and Oraclewhich is supposed to fund the US AI infrastructure for hundreds of billions of dollars.
In the downward trending Hang Seng index, the electric car manufacturer, which rose by 2.2 percent, moved into resistance BYD and China’s state-owned semiconductor manufacturer, pinned to a 0.7 percent rise SMIC.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index was up 1.6 percent at the time of the review, the broader Topix was up 0.9 percent. In Japan, as elsewhere, techno stocks led the gains. On the other hand, the vast majority of energy companies were in a downward direction.
Taiwan’s Taiex index was up 1.0 percent and South Korea’s Kospi was up 1.2 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index was on a gentler 0.3 percent rise.
The futures of the Euro Stoxx 50 and DAX indices predict an upward opening for Europe. Wall Street futures were also rising.