Asian Stocks Edge Up Before Barrage of Earnings: Markets Wrap
(Bloomberg) — Asian stocks posted a slight gain as investors awaited a slew of corporate earnings and economic data this week that will give an early indication of the impacts from President Donald Trump’s tariff war.
A regional index rose 0.2%, following advances in Hong Kong and Australia. Futures for the S&P 500 swung between small gains and losses. The dollar steadied and gold dropped as much as 0.6%. There’s no trading of cash Treasuries in Asia as Tokyo is closed for a public holiday, and they will open at the start of the European session.
The five-day rally in US stocks, the longest advance since November, faces a significant test this week amid US data from jobs to inflation and economic growth, as well as earnings from some of the biggest technology companies. Some calmness has returned to financial markets in the past week after the Trump administration’s trade policies sparked volatile trading in stocks and bonds and prompted traders to sell American assets, including the dollar.
“Underneath the surface, key risks persist — trade tensions, recession worries, and monetary policy uncertainties are very much alive,” said Fawad Razaqzada at City Index and Forex.com.
For equities to keep rallying, investors would need to see the White House follow through on the “dovish pivot” toward trade with China, according to Chris Larkin at E*Trade from Morgan Stanley.
Such a pivot looks unlikely. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC the US has put China to the side for now as it seeks trade deals with between 15 to 17 other countries, while indicating it’s up to Beijing to take the first step in de-escalating the tariff fight.
China is also pushing back hard with the People’s Daily, flagship newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, saying in a commentary Tuesday that the US should stop its wrongdoing of imposing tariffs. Foreign Minister Wang Yi also said if nations choose to remain silent, compromise and retreat, it will only lead to the bullies making further advances.
On Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry again denied it was in discussions to wind back the tariffs.
Meanwhile, Trump is on track to blunt the pain of tariffs affecting the auto industry, with changes for parts in US cars that are built overseas and the so-called stacking of levies on foreign-made vehicles.
A widely followed measure of Texas manufacturing activity weakened significantly as executives used words like “chaos” and “insanity” to describe the tariff turmoil, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. That came ahead of earnings from Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. this week.
“Ongoing trade headlines, an economic calendar filled with key releases and the peak week of the earnings season, including several Magnificent Seven companies reporting results, should keep investors’ heads spinning,” said Anthony Saglimbene at Ameriprise.
The Canadian dollar edged lower Tuesday as investors await results of the nation’s election.
In commodities, oil steadied after a drop with signs of strain in the US economy. Gold dipped slightly ahead of key economic data this week.
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
- S&P 500 futures rose 0.1% as of 10:27 a.m. Tokyo time
- Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5%
- Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.5%
- The Shanghai Composite fell 0.2%
- Euro Stoxx 50 futures rose 0.1%
Currencies
- The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%
- The euro fell 0.1% to $1.1404
- The Japanese yen fell 0.2% to 142.23 per dollar
- The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.2856 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
- Bitcoin rose 0.6% to $95,057.86
- Ether rose 0.8% to $1,800.84
Commodities
- West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.2% to $61.90 a barrel
- Spot gold fell 0.4% to $3,330.77 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Jason Scott.
(An earlier version of this story corrected the 2nd paragraph to show Tokyo is closed for a holiday.)
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