Asian shares inch higher as uncertainty over US tariffs persists

Asian markets inched higher in cautious trading on Monday as investors watched to see what may come of negotiations over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

U.S. futures fell and oil prices were little changed.

Shares in China fell despite more efforts by Beijing to boost the economy, as uncertainty persisted over the status of any talks between Washington and Beijing.

The president says he’s actively negotiating with the Chinese government on tariffs — while the Chinese and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have said talks have yet to start.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged 0.1% higher to 21,995.82 while the Shanghai Composite Index was nearly unchanged at 3,294.02.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 added 0.4% to 35,863.60 and the Kospi in South Korea added 0.1% to 2,5549.19.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.8% to 8,028.20. Taiwan's Taiex gained 0.6%

On Friday, Big Tech stocks helped Wall Street close a winning, roller-coaster week, one that saw markets swing from fear to relief and back to caution because of Trump’s trade war.

The S&P 500 rose 0.7% to 5,525.21 to add some more to a big three-day rally, and it’s back within 10.1% of its record set earlier this year. Spurts for Nvidia and other influential tech stocks sent the Nasdaq composite up a market-leading 1.3% to 17,382.94.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added only a modest 0.1% to 40,113.50.

Alphabet climbed 1.7% in its first trading after Google’s parent company reported late Thursday that its profit soared 50% in the beginning of 2025 from a year earlier, more than analysts expected.

Another market heavyweight, Nvidia, was also a major force pushing the S&P 500 index upward after the chip company rose 4.3%.

They helped offset a 6.7% drop for Intel, which fell even though its results for the beginning of the year also topped expectations. The chip company said it’s seeing “elevated uncertainty across the industry” and gave a forecast for upcoming revenue and profit that fell short of analysts’ expectations.

Despite last week's rally, as talk of Trump firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell receded and hints emerged of a selective softening of his stance on tariffs, not much has changed, Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

“But let’s not kid ourselves: this isn’t a clean pivot. It’s hope and narrative management, plain and simple. What’s really driving the bounce isn’t hard policy action — it’s the perception of de-escalation,” Innes said.

Trump says he’s on a path to cut several new trade deals in a few weeks — but has also suggested it’s “physically impossible” to hold all the needed meetings.

Roughly three out of every five stocks in the S&P 500 sank, including Eastman Chemical, which dropped 6.2% after it gave a forecast for profit this spring that fell short of analysts’ expectations.

Companies across industries have increasingly been saying the uncertainty created by Trump's tariffs is making it difficult to give financial forecasts for the upcoming year.

The hope is that if Trump rolls back some of his stiff tariffs, he could avert a recession that many investors see as otherwise likely because of his trade war.

But the on-again-off-again tariffs may be pushing households and businesses to alter their spending and freeze plans for long-term investment because of how quickly conditions can change, sometimes seemingly by the hour.

A report Friday said sentiment among U.S. consumers sank in April, though not by as much as economists expected. The survey from the University of Michigan said its measure of expectations for coming conditions has dropped 32% since January for the steepest three-month percentage decline seen since the 1990 recession.

In other dealings early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil dropped 25 cents to $63.27 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, lost 24 cents to $66.04 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar rose to 143.62 Japanese yen from 143.60 yen. The euro edged lower, to $1.1358 from $1.1366.