Asian Markets Fall as U.S. House of Representatives Impeaches Trump

Investing.com – Asian markets fell on Thursday morning following news that the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump.

The decision was largely expected. Trump is the third president to be impeached in U.S. history but is likely to survive a trial in the GOP-led Senate.

China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.2% by 10:30 PM ET (02:30 GMT), the was down 0.3%.

Sino-U.S. trade news continued to be in focus. Scepticism brews in the market as details of the phase one deal, agreed last week between the two sides, have not been confirmed by both sides.

In particular, China has shown little enthusiasm about the deal and did not confirm clearly the amount of American agricultural products it is willing to buy.

“There remains more questions than answers,” Chris Krueger, Washington strategist at Cowen, said in a note. It’s “more trade truce than deal … It is unclear if any China tariffs on U.S. goods have been reduced … Vague promises on IP protections.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang repeatedly dodged questions on the terms of the phase one trade deal in a regular news briefing on Wednesday, according to a transcript on its website.

“I have no further news at this time and there is nothing to update,” Geng said, when asked about the U.S. target of $40 billion to $50 billion in agriculture products.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 0.5%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 traded 0.4% lower after Bank of Japan kept policy steady. South Korea’s KOSPI was little changed.

Down under, Australia’s ASX 200 slipped 0.1%.

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