Asian shares gave up early gains on Thursday after a closely watched meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping failed to provide concrete details on trade progress.
Attention turned to the Bank of Japan rate decision, while the Federal Reserve’s cautious signals on future rate cuts weighed on investor sentiment.
Major Wall Street indexes ended with tepid moves overnight, while futures tied to them were largely unchanged in Asian trading as of 05:40 GMT.
BOJ holds rates steady as expected; Nikkei at record high
The Bank of Japan held its short-term interest rate at 0.5%, in line with market expectations, while reiterating that future hikes remain contingent on economic conditions.
The Nikkei 225 edged 0.1% lower, after rising as much as 0.8% to a fresh record high of 51,638.0 points. The broader TOPIX index remained 0.6% higher.
Investor optimism was fueled by domestic inflation above target and hopes for ongoing policy support, with the central bank adopting a patient stance amid sticky inflation and a weak yen.
Trump-Xi meeting ends without concrete trade details
Markets turned negative as Trump-Xi talks failed to provide concrete details on a possible U.S.-China trade agreement.
Trump highlighted a “great relationship” between the two leaders, while Xi said both sides had reached “a basic consensus” despite persisting differences, reports stated.
Source : Investing.com