SINGAPORE— US stock futures and Chinese markets rose on Wednesday, as investors cheered news of a meeting between top US and Chinese trade officials as a chance to tone down the tariffs, while China cut interest rates and vowed to support stock markets.
“My sense is this will be about de-escalation,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said of the meeting, scheduled for the weekend in Switzerland.
S&P 500 futures rose about 0.9 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 1.7 percent by mid-morning. China blue chips rose 0.5 percent and Japan’s Nikkei was broadly flat.
“It suggests that there is perhaps a willingness and enthusiasm on both sides to meet at a high level, so it can’t be anything but positive I would have thought,” said National Australia Bank’s head of foreign exchange research Ray Attrill.
“It’s ostensibly positive for Asian FX generally.”
The dollar rose slightly on the yen and euro, while China’s rate cuts weighed on the yuan and knocked the China-sensitive Australian dollar back below 65 US cents.
South Korea’s won, which had been rallying hard with a broad surge in Asian currencies, fell back by more than 1 percent.
Gold fell 1.4 percent and oil was about 0.5 percent higher.
China’s central bank governor on Wednesday flagged a 10 basis point cut in its benchmark interest rate and a 50 basis point cut to bank reserve requirements – sending more cash into the banking system.
Simultaneously the financial regulator announced an expanded scheme to send insurance investment into the stock market and promised more steps to support property markets, which investors took as a signal of authorities acting in concert.
