Mostly Higher In Asia; Initial Lift From U.S.-China Tariff Optimism Wanes

Major Asia-Pac equity indices are mostly higher at typing, tracking a positive lead from Wall St. Asian equity indices are nonetheless mostly off of their best levels for the session, with major Chinese stock index benchmarks sitting below neutral levels after opening higher.

• The CSI300 sits 0.4% worse off at typing after reversing opening gains, whipping between +0.8% and -1.2% across the Asian session. Shallow gains observed in energy and materials equities were countered by weakness in consumer staples and consumer discretionary stocks, while travel-related equities underperformed, led lower by China Tourism Group Duty Free (-2.3%) amidst the ongoing COVID outbreak in the country’s east.
• The Hang Seng Index sits 0.6% firmer at typing, paring gains after opening higher. The early bid was initially driven by optimism surrounding the U.S. potentially lifting tariffs on Chinese goods in the wake of a WSJ source report and a Liu-Yellen video call, with the impetus fading later into the session. A better than expected Caixin services PMI print (54.5 vs 49.6 BBG median) did little to aid equities, with both the HSI and CSI300 trading lower since then.
• The ASX200 trades 0.6% higher at writing, hitting fresh session highs in the wake of the RBA decision to hike rates by 50bp. The late rally was aided by outperformance in tech names (S&P/ASX All Tech Index: +2.0%) and a recovery in the financials sub-index, which erased earlier losses of as low as 0.8% after the RBA decision.
• U.S. e-mini equity index futures deal 0.3% to 0.5% firmer at typing, paring an earlier bid that saw NASDAQ contracts trade as much as 1.0% firmer near the beginning of the Asian session.