Asian stocks open mostly lower negative, eyes on Powell testimony

The major Asian stocks indices opened mixed but mostly negative today, as the Chinese stocks were mixed, while the Japanese, Hong Kong's Hang Seng and the South Korean Kospi index in addition to the Australian and New Zealand stocks fell, amid growing uncertainty about the ability of the US and China to secure an interim trade agreement to end the ongoing trade war.

The US President Donald Trump said yesterday in his speech at the New York City Economic Club, that Beijing had cheated in the trade agreements with Washington for the benefit of its economy at the expense of American workers, Trump also blamed the former US presidents for allowing China to do so, but noted that he expects the signing of the first phase of the trade deal to happen very soon, but didn't mention a specific date.

President Trump also renewed his attack on the Federal Reserve, as he said that cutting the interest rates at a very slow pace hurts the US economy, which came prior the semi-annual testimony of the Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell before the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee later today.

President Trump said on Saturday that the trade talks with China are going "very nicely" and that Beijing wants a trade deal "much more than me", which helped to renew hopes after the recent White House's statements that denied a complete rollback of the Chinese tariffs.

Gao Feng, spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce, said Thursday that Beijing and Washington agreed to eliminate some tariffs based on each other's goods at the same time, and added that the "phase 1" of the trade deal between the two sides would be signed within the next few weeks.

A US official also confirmed the statements about eliminating the tariffs, but added that the removal plan faces opposition in the White House and from outside advisers, according to Reuters quoted sources, hours after several reports touched the delaying of the first phase of the US-China trade agreement to next month.

Bearing in mind that several reports also cited a delay for the upcoming meeting between the US president and his Chinese counterpart for signing the interim trade agreement to December, amid discussion between the two sides on the agreement terms and the meeting location, which is expected to be at the NATO summit early next month.

As for trading, the Japanese stocks fell today, with the Topix falling by 0.48% or 8.25 points to 1,701.42 points, while Nikkei 225 fell by 0.85% or 200.91 points to 23,319.10.

While the Chinese stocks were mixed, as the CSI 300 index rose by 0.01% or 0.35 points to 3,904.04, and the Shanghai Composite index fell by 0.15% or 4.27 points to 2,910.55.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell by 1.76% or 477.47 points to 26,587.81, and the South Korean Kospi index fell by 1.00% or 21.40 points to 2,119.52.

To New Zealand's NZX 50, which fell by 0.83% or 90.88 points to 10,835.43, while the Australian S&P/ASX 200 fell by 0.59% or 40.17 points to 6,712.80.