Asian stocks on the rise for Wednesday, but trade fears resume

• Asian session equities are following along with Wall Street’s climb, but hesitation on trade fears continues to plague traders.
• Chinese stocks continue to be especially vulnerable to downside shocks on trade headlines.

Asian equities are following Wall Street’s lead through the week, with the majority of bourses in the green for Wednesday after Tuesday’s US markets saw stock indexes climbing amidst positive earnings reports, but trade tensions remain firmly entrenched, and information that Trump may be seeking to ramp up tariffs against China could see risk appetite slump back, dragging equities back with it.

US President Trump could be seeking to raise tariffs planned on China, with $200 billion worth of Chinese goods slated to be subject to a 10% tariff in the coming weeks; the Trump administration is rumoured to be looking to raise those tariffs to 25%, a move that could have a deep impact on stock markets as the US-China trade spat remains unchecked, despite calls for a scaling-back of tensions by various world leaders and warnings of a global economic slide if trade were to be hampered irreparably.

 Japanese indexes are in the green for today, with the Nikkei 225 sitting at 0.88% for the day with the Tokyo Topix index just ahead at 0.92%; Australia’s ASX 200 index is relatively flat at a stable 0.04%, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index sitting at -0.03%. Shanghai’s CSI 300 is tilting to the downside at -0.40% for Wednesday, while the MSCI broad Asia-Pacific index is also in the red by -0.65%.

Nikkei 225 Levels to watch

Japan’s leading equity index is trading into 22,550.00 at the tail-end of Wednesday’s Asian market session after hitting a high for the day at 22,678.00, and resistance is sitting nearby at last week’s high of 22,720.00 with further resistance built in from July’s peak of 22,950.00. The 23,000 handle remains just out of reach of bulls, who have been struggling to lift the index from recent swing lows at 22,340.00  and early July’s bottom at 22,340.00.