Asia-Pacific stocks played catch up to.......>

STOCKS: Asia-Pacific stocks played catch up to their US counterparts following

Wall St.'s rally as traders downplayed US President Trump's latest batch of

trade related rhetoric.

- Japanese stocks also benefitted from a softer JPY as the Nikkei 225 traded

2.2% higher. Exporters led the way after yesterday's sell off.

- The Hang Seng traded ~1.4% higher at the lunch break with energy & IT names

leading the way.

- Chinese mainland shares shook off the lack of liquidity injections from the

PBoC and benefitted from news that China is to relax & remove its foreign

shareholding limit, and will revise its foreign investment negative list this

year. However the space lagged regional counterparts with the CSI 300 last

trading 0.2% higher.

- Australia's ASX 200 traded 1.2% higher, led by the Materials & Energy sectors.

- US Index futures were more reluctant to trade higher, managing modest gains at

the time of writing.