Investing.com – Asian stocks fell in morning trade on Wednesday as U.S. President Donald Trump casted doubt on the upcoming historic summit with North Korea in June.
Trump expressed pessimism about the meeting amid increasing uncertainty about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s motives for the summit after his regime critisized Trump’s concept of “total denuclearization.”
“There’s a chance, a very substantial chance, it won’t work out,” Trump said during a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday. “I don’t want to waste a lot of time and I’m sure he doesn’t want to waste a lot of time. So there’s a very substantial chance it won’t work out and that’s OK. That doesn’t mean it won’t work out over a period of time.”
South Korea’s KOSPI was unchanged at 2465.65 by 9:30 PM ET (01:30 GMT).
Separately, Trump said he is “not really” pleased with the results of trade talks with China so far.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration decided to put the tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese goods on hold. In return, China promised to “significantly” increase purchase of U.S. products and service.
ZTE Corp (HK:0763) remained in focus on Wednesday as Trump said he ordered a review of the penalty as “a favor” to Xi, but there is no deal yet with China. Instead, Trump proposed a revised penalty for ZTE that includes a requirement to appoint a new board of directors and a fine of $1.3 billion.
China’s Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component fell 0.6% and 0.3% respectively. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 1.0%.
Meanwhile, Foxconn Industrial Internet made headlines after it announced plans to raise up to $4.3 billion in an IPO, which would mark the largest mainland Chinese debut since 2015.
Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.0%, while Australia's ASX slipped 0.1%.