Asian stocks were narrowly mixed early on Tuesday after markets in the region pared early gains in the last session amid U.S.-China trade jitters after Beijing threatened retaliation last week.
Japanese shares edged higher, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 adding 0.28 percent as the telecommunications sector gained 1.51 percent to lead gains in the morning. The broader Topix traded up 0.14 percent.
South Korea’s Kospi, meanwhile, drifted higher by 0.05 percent in early trade. Technology recorded moderate gains, with Samsung Electronics higher by 0.66 percent, while retailers and cosmetics stocks came under slight pressure.
Elsewhere, Australian shares eased ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s interest rate decision due at 12:30 p.m. HK/SIN. The S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.12 percent as declines in the materials and telecommunications subindexes weighed on the broader index.
The mixed showing in Asia came after U.S. stocks rose on Monday as investors shrugged off trade uncertainty and focused instead on corporate earnings news.
Investors stateside had come into the earnings season with high hopes as FactSet had forecast year-over-year profits to grow by 20 percent in the second quarter. So far, second-quarter earnings have grown by 24 percent through Friday.
The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.61 percent to finish the session at 7,859.68, recording a five-day winning streak which was its longest since May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up by 0.16 percent, or 39.60 points, to close at 25,502.1 and the S&P 500 was up 0.35 percent to 2,850.40.
That compared to slightly more downbeat sessions seen in Asia and Europe on Monday after China last week said it was preparing to impose duties, ranging from 5 percent to 25 percent, on around $60 billion in U.S. imports. Beijing said those tariffs would take effect if the U.S. went ahead with imposing more duties on Chinese goods.
Chinese state media claimed the country was being “rational” in its countermeasures, which came after U.S. President Donald Trump asked trade officials to consider increasing proposed tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods to 25 percent from an earlier announced 10 percent.
Both the Shanghai and Shenzhen Composite were in bear market territory at the end of Monday, with the benchmark Shanghai share average closing down 1.26 percent in the previous session as trade uncertainty dampened investor sentiment.
Those trade tensions gave support to the dollar, which broadly firmed overnight. The dollar index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of currencies, held onto Monday’s gains to last trade at 95.337.
Also of note, the British pound nursed overnight losses after sliding on concerns over Brexit. Britain’s international trade minister Liam Fox said there was a 60 percent chance of Britain leaving the European Union without a deal, AP said. The pound traded as low as $1.2920 overnight before paring some losses to trade at $1.2943 at 8:04 a.m. HK/SIN.
On the earnings front, Asian corporates slated to report on Tuesday include Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Kirin Holdings and HAECO.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
