Asia-Pacific markets set to climb as Trump softens trade stance against China

Asia-Pacific markets were set to mostly climb Thursday, tracking gains on Wall Street as a possible thaw in U.S.-China trade war fuels investor optimism.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was set to extend the previous day’s gains to open higher, with the futures contract in Chicago at 35,410 while its counterpart in Osaka last traded at 35,440, against the index’s last close of 34,868.63.

Australian markets were also set to open higher, with futures tied to the S&P/ASX 200 last seen at 7,946, compared to the index’s last close of 7,920.5

Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 22,069, little changed from HSI’s last close of 22,072.62.

South Korea’s GDP contracted 0.1% in the first quarter of 2025, according to advance figures released Thursday, missing the 0.1% rise expected by a Reuters poll.

U.S. futures were subdued after the major U.S. indexes posted a second straight winning day. S&P 500 futures were up 0.1%, while Nasdaq 100 futures traded nearly 0.1% higher. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 45 points, or 0.1%.

Overnight stateside, the three major averages closed higher on hopes that U.S.-China trade tensions could soon ease. President Donald Trump also signaled he does not plan to remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell from his post as central bank leader.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 419.59 points, or 1.07%, to close at 39,606.57. The S&P 500 climbed 1.67% to end at 5,375.86, and the Nasdaq Composite rallied 2.50% to settle at 16,708.05. All three indexes posted back-to-back gains.

— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Brian Evans contributed to this report.