Investing.com - Asian stocks inched up in morning trade on Tuesday, with Chinese equities gaining about 0.5% even after U.S. President Donald Trump said he is likely to increase tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump said he would impose duties on all remaining imports from China if talks with Xi Jinping later this week fail to produce a trade deal.
The two leaders are set to meet at the G-20 meeting in Argentina on Nov. 30. Traders are hoping that the summit would diffuse trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
Meanwhile, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock declined 2% in after-hours trading after Trump said the new tariffs could hit iPhones and laptops imported from China. The rate could be either 10% or 25%, Trump added.
"Maybe. Maybe. Depends on what the rate is," the president told the WSJ about the possible iPhone and laptop tariffs. "I mean, I can make it 10%, and people could stand that very easily."
Apple’s products are currently exempt from the tariffs. Shares of the company’s Asia-listed suppliers were mixed on Tuesday. Hon Hai Precision was down 0.7%, while Pegatron inched up 0.4%.
China’s Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component were up 0.4% and 0.5% respectively by 10:50PM ET (03:50 GMT).
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was little changed at 26,361.00.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 traded 0.7% higher. Chat app operator Line Corp (T:3938) was up almost 9% on reports that it is teaming up with Hong Kong-listed Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK:0700) to offer mobile payment services for small Japanese retailers.
Elsewhere, South Korea’s KOSPI was up 0.6%.
Down under, Australia’s ASX 200 gained 1.0%.