Asian Stocks Mixed as Traders Await G-20 Summit; U.S.-Iran Tension in Focus By Investing.com

Investing.com – Asian stocks were mixed in morning trade on Monday as traders remained cautious ahead of the G-20 summit later this week, where U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are expected to discuss trade-related issues.

China’s gained 0.2% by 10:30 PM ET (02:30 GMT), while the dropped 0.2%.

Hong Kong’s climbed 0.4%.

Japan’s and South Korea’s traded 0.3% higher.

Down under, Australia’s ASX slipped 0.1%.

The highly-anticipated G-20 summit in Osaka on Friday and Saturday are expected to gather attention later this week, as Trump and Xi will discuss trade-related issues on the sidelines of the summit in an effort to restart trade talks that broke down last month.

However, just a few days ahead of the summit, the U.S. put five more Chinese tech entities on a trade, raising uncertainty of whether a trade deal could be struck.

In China, the country’s state-run People’s Daily said in an editorial Saturday that Beijing will “fight to the end” if Trump and his administration persists with continuing the trade war.

The U.S. must drop all tariffs imposed on China if it wants to negotiate on trade, the newspaper said. It “must show some good faith, take account of key concerns from both sides and cancel all tariffs,” the paper said.

In other news, conflict between the U.S. and Iran lingered after the latter shot down an American surveillance drone.

Tensions between the two countries have been fragile since the White House decided to withdraw from the UN-backed 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. The administration most recently accused Iran of last week’s attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, which Tehran strongly denied involvement in the explosion.

Looking ahead, a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Tuesday is also expected to be in focus.

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