Asian shares were higher in muted trading on Wednesday as investors watched the second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.5% in early trading to 21,550.02. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3% to 6,148.70. South Korea’s Kospi edged up nearly 0.2% to 2,230.37.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.5% to 28,909.38, while the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.9% to 2,966.84.
Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump both arrived in Hanoi on Tuesday and their Hanoi meetings get underway later in the day on Wednesday.
The two leaders first met last June in Singapore, a summit that was long on historic pageantry but short in any enforceable agreements for North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim are to have a private dinner on Wednesday evening and discussions on Thursday, in hopes of building on an aspirational agreement they made in Singapore.
U.S. stock indexes capped a day of wobbly trading with slight losses on Tuesday, erasing some of their modest gains from a day earlier.
The market changed course several times during the day as investors balanced conflicting US economic data and testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
The Fed chief told Congress that the US economy should keep expanding at a solid, though somewhat slower pace this year, and reassured markets that the central bank would be “patient” in raising interest rates.
Those comments, which indicate steady policy ahead, cheered sentiments among Asian markets.
The S&P 500 dropped 2.21 points, or 0.1%, to 2,793.90. The benchmark index, which has finished higher the past four weeks in a row, broke a two-day winning streak.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 33.97 points, or 0.1%, to 26,057.98.
The Nasdaq composite slid 5.16 points, or 0.1%, to 7,549.30.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies gave up 11.32 points, or 0.7%, to 1,577.48. Major European indexes finished mostly higher.
U.S. benchmark crude added 52 cents to $56.02 a barrel.
It was essentially flat at U$55.50 a barrel in New York overnight.
Brent crude, used to price international oils, 34 cents to $65.70 a barrel in London.
The dollar declined to 110.57 yen from 110.86 yen Tuesday. The euro strengthened to $1.1384 from $1.1363.
