Asian stock markets fluctuated on Thursday after a high-stakes meeting between US and Chinese leaders that resulted in an agreement to alleviate frictions between the world’s two largest economies.US President Donald Trump described his meeting in South Korea with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping — their first since 2019, during Trump’s first term — as “amazing”.Xi said they had reached “consensus” on economic and trade issues, according to state media in Beijing.Stock market reactions were subdued, with Japan’s main benchmark closing flat following a widely expected central bank decision to hold interest rates steady.Shanghai and Sydney closed with moderate drops, while Hong Kong rallied from an afternoon fall to finish just slightly lower on the day.Seoul finished slightly up, helped partly by tech giant Samsung Electronics posting a 32 percent rise in on-year third quarter profits and strong automotive gains.Taipei finished the day largely flat.The meeting between Trump and Xi came after days of a tech-fuelled bull run in global markets, boosted further by an interest rate cut in the United States, confirmed on Wednesday by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.However, Powell’s announcement also cast doubt on an additional cut in December, jolting US markets and lifting the value of the dollar.The Nasdaq later recovered, finishing at a fourth straight record after another gain by artificial intelligence giant Nvidia, which became the first company to reach a $5 trillion market value.Attention had been laser-focused on the Xi-Trump meeting in the South Korean city of Busan.Trump said the talks yielded an extendable one-year deal on China’s supply of crucial rare earths, materials that are essential for sophisticated electronic components across a range of industries.He said tariffs imposed over China’s export of chemicals used to make the deadly drug fentanyl would be reduced to 10 percent — bringing overall US tariffs on Chinese goods to 47 percent.Trump also said China had agreed to purchase “tremendous” amounts of soybeans, as well as other farm products.Xi urged teams from the two countries to “finalise follow-up work as soon as possible”, calling for “tangible results to set minds at ease about the economies of China, the United States and the world”, state news agency Xinhua said.Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said: “The reversal of some US tariffs on China won’t have a big impact given that Chinese exporters had largely shrugged them off.””But the de-escalation takes the immediate threat of large tariff hikes off the table, removing a key downside risk to the near-term outlook,” he wrote in a note.London and Paris dropped at the start of trading in Europe, while Frankfurt’s main benchmark was up slightly.- Key figures at around 0830 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: FLAT at 51,325.61 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.2 percent at 26,282.69 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.7 percent at 3,986.90 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 9,718.65West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.7 percent at $60.07 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.7 percent at $64.48 per barrelEuro/dollar: UP at $1.1613 from $1.1595 on WednesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3193 from $1.3187Dollar/yen: UP at 153.82 yen from 152.82 yenEuro/pound: UP at 88.02 from 87.94 penceNew York – Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 47,632.00 (close)

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed on Thursday to calm the trade war between China and the United States that has roiled global markets, with Washington cutting some tariffs and Beijing committing to keep supplies of critical rare earths flowing.Trump called his first meeting with Xi in six years a “great success”, while the Chinese leader said the two reached an “important consensus” towards solving the fight between the world’s two top economies.”I thought it was an amazing meeting,” Trump said after the talks in Busan, South Korea, praising Xi as a “tremendous leader of a very powerful country” and saying he would visit China in April.Trump added that the deal included China immediately buying “tremendous amounts of soybeans and other farm products”, a key issue for Trump’s support in farm country and a point of leverage for Beijing.The US leader said the talks yielded an extendable one-year deal on China’s supply of crucial rare earths, materials that are essential for sophisticated electronic components across a range of industries.Beijing’s commerce ministry also confirmed it would suspend for one year certain export restrictions, including on rare earth materials, a sector where China is hugely dominant.”All the rare earths has been settled, and that’s for the world,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.Xi said a “consensus” had been reached and urged “follow-up work as soon as possible”.Trump added that the Chinese leader had also agreed to “work very hard to stop the flow” of deadly opioid fentanyl, a trade in which Washington has accused Beijing of being complicit.”I put a 20-percent tariff on China because of the fentanyl coming in… and based on his statements today I am going to reduce that by 10 percent,” Trump said.And in social media post after leaving South Korea, Trump declared “Our Farmers will be very happy!” with the outcomes of the talks.The former reality TV star went on to say in the post that Beijing would “begin the process of purchasing American Energy”, potentially involving oil and gas from Alaska.Officials from the United States and China would meet to hash out that “energy deal”, he added.- ‘Partners and friends’ -Neither leader made any public comments immediately after the talks, which lasted around an hour and 40 minutes.Trump headed straight to Air Force One, waving and pumping his fist as he boarded the plane. The jet took off minutes later.Xi was seen getting into his limousine outside the closed-door meeting.Xi acknowledged before the meeting began in earnest that both sides did not always see eye to eye, but should strive to be “partners and friends”.”China and the US can jointly shoulder our responsibility as major countries and work together to accomplish more great and concrete things for the good of our two countries and the whole world,” said Xi.Sitting opposite each other, each leader was flanked by senior officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury chief Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.Xi’s team, which arrived from Beijing shortly before — the US side was already in South Korea — included Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and Vice Premier He Lifeng.- Crowning achievement -The meeting took place on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit of 21 countries in Gyeongju including the leaders of Japan, Australia and Canada.It was the final stop on an Asia tour that saw Trump, 79, showered with praise and gifts, including a replica of an ancient Korean golden crown.In Japan, new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said she would nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize and gave him a putter and a gold-plated golf ball.However, Trump’s hopes of a re-run of his 2019 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Demilitarized Zone frontier were dashed.Trump said though that they would meet in the “not too distant future” and that he would like to “straighten out” tensions between North and South Korea.One surprise in the talks could have been if Xi had brought up Taiwan, with speculation that Beijing might press Trump to water down US backing for the self-ruled island.But Trump said that Taiwan “never came up. That was not discussed actually.”burs-stu-oho/jm

The Bank of Japan kept interest rates on hold Thursday at 0.5 percent, warning of lingering economic “high uncertainties” linked to US trade tariffs.The decision, expected by economists, came after the first monetary policy meeting since Sanae Takaichi became Japan’s new premier last week.She is widely seen as in favour of monetary easing and active fiscal spending to boost the economy. “High uncertainties still remain regarding the impact of trade and other policies on economic activity and prices at home and abroad,” the BoJ said in a statement following the decision.The announcement also came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told his Japanese counterpart about the importance of “anchoring inflation expectations”. Bessent visited Tokyo along with US President Donald Trump, who was meeting Takaichi face-to-face for the first time.BoJ governor Kazuo Ueda shrugged off any pressure from Bessent, telling reporters after the policy decision: “We will calmly implement appropriate monetary policies based on the economic and price outlook and the degree of certainty regarding that outlook.”Stephen Innes, managing partner of SPI Asset Management, said the “message was clear” from the rate decision.”Japan’s balance sheet can no longer afford the distortions of ultra-low rates, and the global system can no longer run on the assumption that the yen will always absorb excess liquidity,” he said.Marcel Thieliant, head of Asia-Pacific for Capital Economics, said in a note that “crucially, there are few signs that the Bank is becoming less concerned about the impact of higher tariffs”. “The Bank still sees a risk that lower profits could result in a slowdown in wage growth as firms put more effort on cost-cutting,” he said, predicting that the next rate hike will come in January.- Rate pause -Officials began hiking rates from below zero in March last year as figures signalled an end to the country’s “lost decades” of stagnation, with inflation surging.However, with worries about the global outlook and US tariffs growing, the bank paused its tightening measures at the start of 2025, with the last increase in January, taking rates to their highest level in 17 years.”The reason for maintaining the interest rate is the uncertainty surrounding the overseas economy, particularly the US economy, and global trade policy trends,” Ueda said.”We would like to observe more data” including annual union negotiations over pay starting early next year, as corporate revenues may be affected by US tariffs, he said.He declined to comment on the timing and the size of the next rate hike.The yen weakened against the dollar after the BoJ decision, which was carried by seven votes to two.Takaichi, 64, an acolyte of former premier Shinzo Abe, has advocated her mentor’s “Abenomics” policies, including massive monetary easing and active fiscal spending.Her ministers, however, said the BoJ has independence in its monetary decisions.