ASIAN stocks were subdued on Thursday morning, with investors closely watching talks between the leaders of the United States and China for potential breakthroughs to defuse a damaging trade war.
Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met for the first time since 2019 in Busan, South Korea, engaging in high-stakes talks about the relationship between the world’s top two economies.
The meeting comes after days of a tech-fuelled bull run in global markets, boosted further by an interest rate cut in the United States, confirmed on Wednesday by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
But Powell’s announcement also cast doubt on an additional cut in December, jolting US markets and lifting the value of the dollar.
The Nasdaq later recovered, finishing at a fourth straight record after another gain by artificial intelligence giant Nvidia, which became the first company to reach a US$5 trillion market value.
A “cautious reaction” is…
