Asia-Pacific markets trade mixed as China port fees on U.S. ships set to kick in

Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed Tuesday, breaking ranks with Wall Street that soared after U.S. President Donald Trump softened his stance on China.

Following a slew of tit-for-tat trade restrictions and heated exchanges, Trump said “Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine!” in a Truth Social post Monday.

China has slapped fees on U.S. ships for docking at its ports, in retaliation for similar charges imposed by Washington on Chinese ships. Both fees are scheduled to kick in Tuesday.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index declined 1.34%, while the Topix lost 1.31%.

South Korea’s Kospi index added 1.01%, while the small-cap Kosdaq rose 0.84%.

Shares of Samsung Electronics rose 2.47% after the company projected a 32% rise in third-quarter profit year on year, at about 12.1 trillion Korean won ($8.48 billion), beating LSEG SmartEstimates of 10.1 trillion won.

Australia’s ASX/S&P 200 was down 0.25%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was set to open lower, with its futures contract trading at 25,794, against the index’s previous close of 25,889.48.

Singapore’s economy grew 2.9% in the third quarter, preliminary government data showed Tuesday, faster than the 1.9% expected by economists polled by Reuters. The economy expanded by 4.4% in the second quarter.

U.S. equity futures were little changed in early Asian hours. On Monday stateside, the key benchmarks recovered a significant chunk of their losses suffered last week after Trump’s Truth Social post.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 587.98 points, or 1.29%, to 46,067.58, which equates to 67% of its Friday loss. The S&P 500 rose 1.56% to finish at 6,654.72, retracing 56% of its prior decline. The Nasdaq Composite popped 2.21% to settle at 22,694.61 as beaten-down technology stocks led the bounce.

— CNBC’s Alex Harring, Sarah Min and Fred Imbert contributed to this report.