Asian stocks open mixed as markets take breather

Asian stocks opened the third session of the week with a mixed performance, as the Japanese and the New Zealand stocks, as well as the Australian stocks and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose, while the Chinese and South Korea's Kospi fell in early trading. This comes amid investors' assessment of the US-China trade dispute developments.

Yesterday, the US Department of Commerce announced an exemption period of 90 days before imposing the sanctions on the Chinese giant, Huawei Technologies and its affiliates, reflecting the possibility of improvement in the trade war between Washington and Beijing, after US President, Donald Trump, signed an executive order last Wednesday that required putting Huawei and its affiliates on a trading blacklistز

China announced earlier this week its intention to increase tariffs on imports of US goods estimated at $60 billion from 10% to 25% by the beginning of June, which shows the escalation of the trade war between China and the United States, as the US increased tariffs on imports of Chinese goods estimated at $200 billion also from 10% to 25%. Amid a threat by the US President' administration to impose an additional 25% increase in tariffs on other Chinese goods estimated at $300 billion soon.

On the other hand, Investors are looking for the release of the minutes of the FOMC meeting that was held at the end of April and early May, in which the monetary policymakers at the Federal Reserve agreed to keep rates between 2.25% and 2.50% for the third consecutive meeting. Amid a move to cut back on bond repurchases before the end of the program by September following the adoption of the patience policy in raising rates.

In terms of trading, the Japanese stock indices rose during today's trading session, with Topix index rising by 0.07% to gain 1.14 points, up to the level of 1,551.44, while Nikkei 225 also rose by 0.36%, gaining 76.21 points, up to 21,348.66 level.

On the other hand, China's CSI 300 fell 0.05% (1.91 points) to reach 3,664.87. With the Shanghai Composite Index also falling by 0.09% (2.73 points) to reach the level of 2,903.24.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.25% (69.12 points) to 27,726.36, while South Korea's Kospi fell 0.23% (4.70 points) down to 2,056.55.

To the NZX 50 index of New Zealand stocks, which rose by 0.06% (5.88 points) to reach 10,221.97. While the S&P/ASX 200 index of Australian stocks also rose by 0.09% (5.64 points) to 6,494.50.