Asia markets open higher as hopes for a U.S.-Iran deal rise and oil prices drop – CNBC
Asia-Pacific markets broadly rose Wednesday, tracking overnight gains in U.S. stocks, amid rising hopes of a diplomatic solution to the Middle East conflict.
A White House official told CNBC on Tuesday that a second round of negotiations between Washington and Tehran was under discussion. Nothing has been officially scheduled yet, the official said, who asked not to be named to discuss the administration’s internal plans.
“We’ve been called by the other side,” President Donald Trump said Monday. “They’d like to make a deal very badly, he added.
Oil prices were choppy in trading. The West Texas Intermediate was flat at $91.33 per barrel as of 3:32 a.m. ET. Brent crude was 0.40% higher at $95.17 per barrel.
South Korea’s Kospi ended the session 2.07% higher at 6,091.39, while the small-cap Kosdaq gained 2.72% at 1,152.43. Shares of information technology services provider Samsung SDS rose 17.89% following news that private equity firm KKR will buy $820 million of its convertible bonds.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.44% higher at 58,134.24, while the Topix rose 0.4% to 3,770.33. Shares of Suntory Beverage & Food rose 1.24% following a Nikkei report that its parent company will buy Daiichi Sankyo‘s over-the-counter pharmaceutical unit to expand its health business for about $1.2 billion.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 index bucked regional gains, ending the session down 0.34% at 4,68525, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.43% in its last hour of trade. China’s finance ministry said it will issue 15.5 billion yuan-denominated treasury bonds in Hong Kong on April 22, according to Reuters.
India’s Nifty 50 gained 1.56% following a holiday on Tuesday. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 ended flat for today’s session.
Futures tied to the broad market index and Nasdaq 100 futures were last trading marginally lower. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell by 17 points, or less than 0.1%.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 1.18%. The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.96%, while the blue-chip Dow advanced 317.74 points, or 0.66%.
The S&P 500 is nearing its all-time high of 7,002.28, reached on Jan. 28.
— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Jeff Cox contributed to this report.
