Asian shares advance after a quiet day on Wall St, despite tough talk on tariffs

Asian shares were mostly higher on Tuesday after U.S. stocks drifted to a mixed, quiet finish ahead of a busy week of corporate earnings and economic data that could bring more bouts of volatility.

U.S. futures edged higher and oil prices fell. Tokyo’s markets were closed for a holiday.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.5% to 22,070.23, while the Shanghai Composite index edged less than 0.1% lower, to 3,286.49.

In South Korea, the Kospi jumped 0.8% to 2,568.62. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 also rose 0.8%, to 8,061.90.

Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.5%.

A recent relative lull in trading has brought a respite from the sharp swings that have rocked markets for weeks, as hopes rose and fell that President Donald Trump may back down on his trade war.

The Trump administration appears to have made little headway in finding a way forward with Beijing, with both sides insisting the other needs to make the first move. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking on CNBC, said he believed China wants a “de-escalation” in the trade war.

“I do have an escalation letter in my back pocke, and we’re very anxious not to have to use itt.”

“Maybe they’ll call me one day,” Bessent told Fox news.

Trump has ordered increases in tariffs on Chinese exports that combined add up to 145%. China has struck back with import duties on U.S. goods of up to 125%, though it has exempted some items.

Many investors believe Trump’s tariffs could cause a recession if left unaltered. Coming into Monday, the S&P 500 had roughly halved its drop that had taken it nearly 20% below its record set earlier this year.

On Monday, the S&P 500 inched up by 0.1%, to 5,528.75, extending its winning streak to a fifth day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3% to 40,227.59, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1% to 17,366.13.

Mixed trading for some influential tech stocks ahead of their earnings reports this week pulled the S&P 500 back and forth between modest gains and losses for much of Monday.

Amazon fell 0.7%, Microsoft dipped 0.2%, Meta Platforms added 0.4% and Apple rose 0.4%.

Outside of Big Tech, executives from Caterpillar, Exxon Mobil and McDonald’s may also offer clues this week about how they’re seeing economic conditions play out. Several companies across industries have already slashed their estimates for upcoming profit or pulled their forecasts entirely because of uncertainty about what will happen with Trump’s tariffs.

A fear is that Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs may be pushing households and businesses to alter their spending and freeze plans for long-term investment because of how quickly conditions can change, seemingly by the hour.

So far, economic reports seem to show the U.S. economy is still growing, though at a weaker pace. On Wednesday, economists expect a report to say U.S. economic growth slowed to a 0.8% annual rate in the first three months of this year, down from a 2.4% pace at the end of last year.

Most reports so far have focused on data from before Trump’s “Liberation Day” on April 2, when he announced tariffs that could affect imports from countries worldwide. That could raise the stakes for upcoming reports on the U.S. job market, including Friday’s, which will show how many workers employers hired during all of April.

Economists expect it to show a slowdown in hiring down to 125,000 from 228,000 in March.

The most jarring economic data recently have come from surveys showing U.S. consumers are getting much more pessimistic about the economy’s future because of tariffs. The Conference Board’s latest reading on consumer confidence is due on Tuesday.

In the bond market, Treasury yields fell further. They’ve been sinking since an unsettling, unusual spurt higher in yields earlier this month rattled both Wall Street and the U.S. government. That rise had suggested investors worldwide may have been losing faith in the U.S. bond market’s reputation as a safe place to park cash.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury was steady at 4.21% early Tuesday.

In other dealings, benchmark U.S. crude oil lost 33 cents to $61.72 per barrel. Brent crude gave up 32 cents to $64.46 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar bought 142.36 Japanese yen, up from 142.02 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1401 from $1.1422.

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AP Business Writers Stan Choe and Matt Ott contributed.