Asia markets were in positive territory on Tuesday morning after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite broke a four-day losing streak overnight. The White House also announced that it was in the process of coordinating a second meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The Nikkei 225 was up by 0.57 percent in early trade while South Korea’s Kospi saw gains of 0.2 percent.
Down Under, the ASX 200 was higher by 0.25 percent as the financial sector rose 0.32 percent in the early hours of trade.
Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq snapped a four-day losing streak to close higher stateside. The S&P 500 rose by 0.2 percent to 2,877.13 while the Nasdaq Composite was up by 0.3 percent to 7,924.16. The Dow Jones Industrial Average , however, fell by 59.47 points to close at 25,857.07.
On Monday, the White House announced that Trumphad received a request from North Korea’s Kim for a follow-up meeting after their historic meetingin Singapore in June 2018.
Described by the White House as a “very warm, positive letter,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders informed reporters at the press briefing on Monday that the administration was open to the request and was “already in the process of coordinating” the meeting.
Trade also remains another focal point for markets, with Canada and the U.S. yet to secure a deal that would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. Trump announced last Friday that he was ready to slap tariffs on an additional $267 billion of Chinese imports, on top of the $200 billion already in the administration’s sights.
In the currency markets, the U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies, was at 95.168 as of 8:12 a.m. HK/SIN, off its high from yesterday.
The Japanese yen was slightly lower against the dollar at 111.18, while the Australian dollar weakened at $0.7107 as of 8:14 a.m. HK/SIN.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert and Christina Wilkie contributed to this report.
