US President Donald Trump is welcomed after arriving in Beijing to begin a historic visit to China on May 13, 2026.
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Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Thursday as investors looked to a high-level meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for clues on the future of US-China relations and global trade.
Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for a much-anticipated summit, accompanied by a group of US officials, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Nvidia manager Jensen Huang.
Japanese Nikkei 225 rose 0.27%, while the Topix fell 0.23%. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.38%, while the smaller Kosdaq rose 1.31%.
Samsung shares rose as much as 5.46%, hitting a new record high. The tech giant took a $66 billion nosedive in its market value on Wednesday following a labor dispute that threatened one of the biggest strikes in company history.
This came as the trade union threatened an 18-day strike from May 21 if its demands were not met. More than 41,000 workers are expected to join the walkout, which was first announced at a rally on April 23.
South Korea’s Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol warned Thursday that a possible strike by Samsung workers could pose a serious threat to the country’s economic growth, exports and financial markets.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 down 0.16%.
Hong Kong Hang Seng Index rose 1.32%, while the CSI 300 added 0.27%.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs said they expect the Trump-Xi meeting to focus less on trade and export controls, including tariffs, rare earth restrictions and semiconductors, rather than produce a full reset in bilateral relations.
The investment bank said China could agree to increase imports of US farm goods, energy and aircraft to avoid rising tariffs.
“While it is unlikely to change US-China relations, we think the meeting could serve as a strategy to strengthen the Chinese yuan’s strength in China,” Goldman analysts wrote in a note on Wednesday.
The bank was bullish on Chinese stocks, citing the country’s competitiveness in exports and what it described as a “less important” currency, while it reiterated its call for an overweight position in Chinese stocks, particularly mainland A-shares over Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
In the US, the future was a little different. The future of the S&P again Nasdaq 100 futures increased by 0.1% and 0.4%, respectively. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 111 points, or about 0.3%.
Night on Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose to record highs as traders’ enthusiasm for tech trades was overshadowed by another hotter-than-expected inflation report.
The broad market index rose 0.58% to 7,444.25, and tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.2% to end at 26,402.34. Both hit new intraday and closing records. I The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 67.36 points, or 0.14%, to end at 49,693.20.
– CNBC’s Lim Hui Jie, Lisa Kailai Han and Sean Conlon contributed to this report.
