“I have a lot of respect for President Xi,” Trump told reporters after visiting Malaysia for a summit of Southeast Asian nations, where he reached preliminary trade agreements with Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
“I think we’re going to come away with a deal,” Trump said.
Chinese markets logged solid gains. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.1% to 26,434.69, while the Shanghai Composite index added 1.2% to 3,996.94.
“This isn’t just photo-op diplomacy. Behind the showmanship, Washington and Beijing’s top trade lieutenants have quietly mapped out a framework that might, just might, keep the world’s two largest economies from tearing up the field again,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
Trump traveled to Japan on Monday and will end his Asian tour in South Korea, where he is expected to meet with Xi on the sidelines of a Pacific Rim summit, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (known as APEC) forum.
Opinion polls show Japan's newly installed Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi enjoys high levels of public support for her market-friendly policies and apparent strong performance in her debut at the regional summit. Japan's first female prime minister, Takaichi favors raising defense spending. That has boosted prices of stocks in major defense contractors, such as Kawasaki Heavy Industries, which gained 9%. IHI Corp. jumped 2.8% and Hitachi gained 3.7%.
Trump has long complained American cars were shut out Japanese markets, one of various reasons he cited for imposing tariffs of 25%, then lowered to 15%, on American's most vital ally in Asia. So as part of its negotiations with Washington, Japan’s government has floated the idea of buying a fleet of Ford F-150 trucks to use to inspect roads and infrastructure.
