Asian stocks edged higher as optimism over more artificial intelligence spending under Donald Trump offset fears over the impact of tariffs on China.
Shares in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan jumped in the wake of Trump’s plan for an investment push in the AI sector, which lifted technology stocks across the region.
But Chinese shares bucked the trend after the US president said he was still considering a 10% tariff on all goods from the country.
That fueled a decline of as much as 1.3% in China’s benchmark CSI 300 Index. The divergent fortunes of Asian stock markets underscore the difficult questions investors will be forced to weigh up over the coming months, when the Trump administration is expected to make a series of sweeping policy changes.
The broad MSCI Asia Pacific Index was up around 0.1%. “China will still need to brace for potential tariffs and that’s going to slow down exports this year,” Frederic Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC in Hong Kong, said on Bloomberg TV.”
