Asian Stocks Mostly Rise as Investors Weigh Trade War Fears

Asian markets mostly rose but stayed within a narrow range in subdued trading Tuesday as global investors continued to weigh their fears about a possible trade war between the U.S. and China.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.2 percent to 21,730.41 in morning trading. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.6 percent to 5,843.00. South Korea’s KOSPI inched down 0.2 percent to 2,439.13. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.8 percent to 30,467.23, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.3 percent to 3,148.86.

Indexes are fluctuating in recent sessions as they try to guess the outcome of the U.S.-China trade dispute. While President Donald Trump continued to bash America’s trade deals on Twitter, he said the U.S. and China could settle their dispute. But things looked worse at the end of last week, when President Trump threatened to impose tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese goods. China has pledged to “counterattack with great strength” if Trump decides to follow through on that threat. The two nations had already proposed $50 billion in tariffs on imports, but none of that has taken effect yet.

The S&P 500 index gained 8.69 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,613.16. The S&P 500 fell 1.4 percent last week, with large losses Monday and Friday and strong gains in between. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 46.34 points, or 0.2 percent, to 23,979.10. The Nasdaq composite jumped 35.23 points, or 0.5 percent, to 6,950.34. The Russell 2000 index of smaller company stocks added 1.17 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,514.46.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose 45 cents to $63.87 a barrel. It jumped $1.36, or 2.2 percent, to $63.42 a barrel overnight in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, added 37 cents to $69.02 a barrel.

The dollar was little changed, inching down to 107.08 yen from 107.12 late Monday. The euro rose to $1.2314 from $1.2275.