US President Donald Trump is welcomed as he arrives in Beijing to begin his landmark state visit to China on May 13, 2026.
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Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Thursday, with investors eyeing a high-stakes meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping for clues about the future of U.S.-China relations and global trade.
President Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for a high-profile summit with a group of U.S. government officials, including: tesla CEO Elon Musk and Nvidia Boss Jensen Huang.
Japanese Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.98% to 62,654.05, and TOPIX fell 1.03% to 3,879.27. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.75% to 7,981.41, while the small-cap Kosdaq rose 1.2% to 1,191.09.
Samsung shares rose as much as 5%, hitting a new all-time high. The tech giant suffered a temporary loss of $66 billion in market value on Wednesday following a labor dispute that threatened one of the largest strikes in the company’s history.
This comes after the union threatened to go on strike for 18 days starting May 21 if its demands were not met. More than 41,000 workers are expected to take part in the strike, which was first announced at a rally on April 23.
South Korean Finance Minister Koo Yun-chul warned on Thursday that a possible strike by Samsung employees could pose a major threat to the country’s economic growth, exports and financial markets.
In Australia, S&P/ASX 200 8,640.7, an increase of 0.12%.
hong kong Hang Seng Index In the final hours of trading, the CSI 300 fell 1.68% to 4,914.60.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs said they expected the Trump-Xi meeting to focus on trade and export controls, including tariffs, rare earths and restrictions on semiconductors, rather than a complete reset of bilateral relations.
The investment bank said China could agree to increase its purchases of U.S. agricultural products, energy and aircraft in exchange for avoiding further tariff increases.
“While unlikely to result in major changes in U.S.-China relations, we believe this meeting could act as a tactical catalyst to drive gains in the Chinese yuan and Chinese stocks,” Goldman analysts said in a note late Wednesday.
While the bank maintained its positive view on Chinese assets, citing China’s export competitiveness and China’s “undervalued” currency, it reiterated its overweight stance on Chinese stocks, particularly mainland A-shares over Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
In the US, futures prices were little changed. S&P futures and Nasdaq 100 futures They rose by 0.1% and 0.4%, respectively. Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average It rose by 111 points (nearly 0.3%).
A night on Wall Street S&P500 Traders’ enthusiasm for technology trade pushed stocks to new highs, overshadowed by another warmer-than-expected inflation report.
The broader market index rose 0.58% to 7,444.25. Nasdaq Added 1.2% to end at 26,402.34. Both broke intraday and closing price records. of Dow Jones Industrial Average It fell 67.36 points (0.14%) to end at 49,693.20.
—CNBC’s Lim Hui Jie, Lisa Kailai Han and Sean Conlon contributed to this report.
