Trump postpones tariffs on China

Asian equities traded higher on Thursday morning against a backdrop of positive developments on the trade front between the United States and China. Markets are also waiting for further easing measures from the European Central Bank when it will announce its decision on interest rates later today.

Mainland China's shares advanced mainly in early trading, with the Shanghai composite advancing 0.18% and the Shenzhen component 0.16%. Shenzhen's composite was largely flat.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell by 0.25%. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) shares lost more than 2.5% as a result of its offer on the London Stock Exchange Group (LSE). HKEX announced on Wednesday that a proposal to the LSE board had been made to "combine the two companies".

Anheuser-Busch InBev announced on Thursday that it was continuing exploration of its initial public offering of Budweiser in Hong Kong, two months after announcing its intention not to proceed with the IPO.

The Nikkei 225 rose 0.8% in morning trading, while the Topix rose 0.67%. Yahoo Japan shares jumped about 2% after the announcement of the opening of a public offer to buy on the online clothing retailer Zozo. For its part, Zozo has seen its stock increase by about 15%.

In Australia, the S & P / ASX 200 index gained 0.56% as most sectors advanced.

Overall, the MSCI Asia ex Japan index rose 0.31%.

US President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that the increase in customs duties on Chinese goods worth $ 250 billion that were to come into service on October 1 has now been postponed to October 15 "in sign of good will ".

Trump said the decision was made at the request of Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and in consideration of the 70th anniversary celebrations of the People's Republic of China.

US President Donald Trump tweeted: "At the request of Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and the fact that the People's Republic of China will celebrate its 70th birthday on October 1st, we have agreed, as a sign of good move, the higher tariffs on goods worth $ 250 billion (from 25% to 30%), from October 1 to 15. "

"It's hard to know … where will things go, but I guess if we trade deals, it's better than escalations," said James McCormack, global head of sovereign ratings at Fitch Ratings, on Thursday. "Squawk Box" at CNBC. .

Nevertheless, McCormack added, "I think we're far from the real resolution, I guess if we sit here in a year, we'll still talk about a lot of these issues."

Investors are also waiting for the ECB's decision on interest rates, which should be announced at 19:45. HK / SIN.

"The markets are turning their attention to tonight's ECB meeting where a consensus has been reached for the easing measures to be announced, but there is still considerable uncertainty as to what these measures could entail" said Rodrigo Catril, chief foreign exchange strategist at the National Australia Bank. , wrote in a morning note.

Markets in South Korea are closed on Thursdays for holidays.

Over the course of the night, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 227.61 points to close at 27,137.04 points, its first consecutive series of wins in six months. The S & P 500 closed the trading day up 0.7% to 3,000.93, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1% to 8,169.68, its best close since July 31st.

After Wednesday's session on Wall Street, the Dow is now less than 1% of the historic record of July 16 and that of the S & P 500 to less than 1% of the record reached July 26.

The US dollar index, which compares the greenback to a basket of peers, stood at 98.627 after peaking around 98.7 yesterday.

The Japanese yen traded at 108.04 against a dollar, after weakening around 106.8 at the start of the week. The Australian dollar has changed hands at 0.6869 USD after hitting a low of 0.6857 USD before.

Oil prices rose in the morning hours of Asian trading, Brent crude futures moving 0.84% ​​to $ 61.32 a barrel and US crude oil futures gaining from 0.95% to $ 56.28 a barrel.

What's up?

• Europe: meeting of the European Central Bank and press conference at 19:45. HK / NAS
• India: industrial production data and consumer price index at 20:00. HK / NAS

– Reuters and Fred Imbert of CNBC contributed to this report.