Asian Markets Track Wall Street Strongly Higher

(RTTNews) - Asian stock markets are trading strongly higher on Thursday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with sharp gains across all markets in the region after US President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on new "reciprocal tariffs" on most countries to allow for negotiations. However, Trump excluded China from the pause. Asian Markets closed mostly lower on Wednesday.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that tariffs would be brought down during the 90-day pause to a "universal 10 percent" level on most countries, including Canada.

However, the pause will not apply to China, as Trump announced he is raising the tariff on the country to 125 percent due to the "lack of respect" they have shown to the world's markets.

The higher tariffs on China come after the country retaliated to a previous increase by announcing it will raise its tariffs on U.S. goods to 84 percent from 34 percent just after midnight on Thursday.

The Australian market is trading sharply higher on Thursday, reversing the sharp losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is surging 4.7 percent to above the 7,700 level, with gains across all sectors led by mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is surging 346.10 points or 4.69 percent to 7,721.10, after touching a high of 7,842.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 359.10 points or 4.75 percent to 7,920.80. Australian stocks ended sharply lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Mineral Resources is soaring almost 12 percent and BHP Group is advancing more than 6 percent, while Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals are surging almost 6 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is adding more than 6 percent and Origin Energy is gaining more than 3 percent, while Santos and Woodside Energy are surging almost 6 percent each.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is soaring almost 14 percent, WiseTech Global is surging almost 6 percent, Appen is spiking more than 10 percent, Zip is skyrocketing almost 21 percent and Xero is advancing more than 6 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is advancing almost 4 percent and ANZ Banking is gaining more than 4 percent, while National Australia Bank and Westpac are surging more than 5 percent each. Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources and Newmont are gaining almost 4 percent each, while Evolution Mining is advancing almost 6 percent, Gold Road Resources is up almost 2 percent and Resolute Mining is surging almost 9 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.614 on Thursday.

The Japanese market is trading sharply higher on Thursday, reversing the sharp losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is surging more than 8 percent to well above the 34,300 level, with gains across all sectors led by index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 34,353.17, up 2,639.17 points or 8.32 percent, after touching a high of 34,568.46 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply lower on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is soaring almost 12 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is advancing almost 8 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is surging almost 8 percent and Honda is spiking almost 7 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is skyrocketing more than 15 percent, Tokyo Electron is soaring more than 13 percent and Screen Holdings is surging almost 11 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are soaring more than 11 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is surging more than 8 percent.

Among the major exporters, Panasonic is surging almost 12 percent, Canon is advancing almost 10 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is skyrocketing almost 11 percent and Sony soaring almost 13 percent.

Among other major gainers, Konica Minolta, Fanuc and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are skyrocketing almost 16 percent each, while Disco is soaring almost 15 percent. Chiba Bank, Nidec, Lasertec and Sumco are surging almost 14 percent each. Yaskawa Electric, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Renesas Electronics and Concordia Financial are spiking more than 13 percent each. Seiko Epson is gaining almost 13 percent.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 146 yen-range on Thursday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Taiwan is soaring 9.3 percent, while Singapore and South Korea are surging 6.2 and 5.6 percent, respectively. New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia are higher by between 3.5 and 4.3 percent each. China is up 1.6 percent. On Wall Street, stocks showed an astonishingly strong move back to the upside during trading on Wednesday following the nosedive seen over the past several sessions. The major averages all moved sharply higher, posting their biggest one-day gains in years.

The major averages saw continued strength late in the day, reaching new highs for the session. The Nasdaq soared 1,857.06 or 12.2 percent to 17,124.97, the S&P 500 spiked by 474.13 points or 9.5 percent to 5,456.90 and the Dow surged 2,962.86 points or 7.9 percent to 40,608.45.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved sharply lower on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index dove by 3.3 percent, the German DAX Index tumbled by 3.0 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slumped by 2.9 percent.

Crude oil prices extended their recent nosedive early in the session on Wednesday but showed a substantial turnaround over the course of the day. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery soared $2.77 or 4.7 percent to $62.35 a barrel.