Asian stocks were poised for a higher open after U.S. markets jumped, following a report that U.S. President Donald Trump obtained concessions from the European Union to avoid a trade war.
Nikkei futures traded in Chicago were marginally higher by 0.06 percent compared to the benchmark’s last close. Australian SPI futures were up 0.12 percent at their last close.
U.S stocks closed sharply higher on Wednesday after Trump said the United States and the European Union had launched a “new phase” in their relationship, saying that the two major economies would start negotiations immediately on a number of areas that include working toward “zero tariffs” on industrial goods, and further cooperation on energy issues.
“We agreed today, first of all, to work together towards zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers and zero subsidies for the non-auto industrial goods,” Trump said at a joint press conference in the White House Rose Garden with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 172.16 points to close at 25,414.10, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.2 percent to an all-time high of 7,932.24. The S&P 500 gained 0.9 percent to trade at 2,846.07, closing less than 1 percent from its record high.
After the bell, disappointing quarterly results from Facebook, however, led to a major decline in after-hour trade. Given that move, the company is on track to lose more than $125 billion in market value, and other tech stocks were set to fall in response.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of peers, last stood at 94.363. Against the yen, the dollar weakened to trade as 110.86 at 7:16 a.m. HK/SIN.
—CNBC’s Fred Imbert, Christina Wilkie and Tucker Higgins contributed to this report.
