Asian shares advance ahead of Trump's deadline for imposing higher
tariffs on Chinese goods
[August 11, 2025] By
ELAINE KURTENBACH
BANGKOK (AP) — Shares advanced in Asia on Monday, a day ahead of U.S.
President Donald Trump’s deadline for imposing higher tariffs on goods
imported from China.
U.S. futures edged higher while oil prices extended declines that began
last week on expectations for a possible breakthrough in the Ukraine
conflict from Trump's planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir
Putin on Friday in Alaska.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong edged 0.1% higher to 24,891.65, while the
Shanghai Composite index gained 0.4% to 3,647.80.
Triple digit tariffs imposed by Trump and Beijing were paused for 90
days in May to allow time for talks.
Tuesday is the deadline for extending that truce. The last round of
negotiations, held last month in Stockholm, ended without a clear word
from Trump on whether the deadline would be extended for another 90
days.
Taiwan's Taiex gained 0.5%, helped by a 0.4% climb for TSMC, the world's
largest contract manufacturer of computer chips. Analysts said the
company's shares are seen as a proxy for big U.S. chip makers like
Nvidia and AMD. Unconfirmed reports said the companies had agreed to pay
the U.S. government a 15% share of sales revenue from sales to China of
their chips used for artificial intelligence.
Elsewhere in Asia, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3% to 8,834.70, while
the Kospi in South Korea was nearly unchanged, at 3,209.22.
Markets in Japan and Thailand were closed for holidays.
On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.8% to 6,389.45, just shy of its record
high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5% to 44,175.61, and the
Nasdaq rose 1% to finish at 21,450.02.
Technology companies, with their hefty stock values, did much of the
heavy lifting for the market. Nvidia rose 1.1% and Apple gained 4.2%.
Gilead Sciences jumped 8.3% for one of the market's biggest gains after
reporting financial results that easily beat analysts' forecasts, while
also raising its earnings forecast for the year. Expedia Group rose 4.1%
after also reporting encouraging financial results.
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Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite
Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate
between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign
exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South
Korea, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
 They are among the final big batch
of companies within the S&P 500 to report mostly strong financial
results for the second quarter. Still, many have warned that current
tariffs could cut into their profits.
Elsewhere in the market, entertainment giant Paramount Skydance slid
10.5% a day after the company was created by the closing of an $8
billion merger of Skydance and Paramount. Shares in rival Warner
Bros. Discovery sank 8%.
Investors will get more insight this week on U.S. inflation at both
the consumer and wholesale levels and on retail sales.
Trump’s trade war and its potential impact on the U.S. economy and
on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy are a focus after the
U.S. began imposing higher import taxes on dozens of countries last
Thursday.
The Fed’s last decision to hold interest rates steady included two
votes to lower interest rates. Its next meeting is in September, and
Wall Street is overwhelmingly betting that the central bank will cut
interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point after signals have
pointed to a weaking of the economy.
Both are key concerns for the Fed, which has been trying to cool
inflation down to its target rate of 2% while also fulfilling its
“full employment” mandate.
Lower interest rates can give the economy and investment prices a
boost, though the downside is that they can also push inflation
higher. Concerns about inflation reheating could be overshadowed by
worries about a weakening employment market.
In other dealings early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil shed 57
cents to $63.31 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard,
declined 51 cents to $66.08 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar slipped to 147.56 Japanese yen from 147.62 yen. The
euro rose to $1.1667 from $1.1650.
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