Asian Stocks Hit Back by Trump Jitters; China shares mixed amid weak PMI, AI bets investing.com
Investing.com- Most Asian stocks fell on Monday after US President Donald Trump’s imposition of trade tariffs on Colombia rattled risk appetite with the possibility of more such moves.
China’s markets were a mixed bag, as investors bought some local tech names on optimism over DeepSeek R1 – a new artificial intelligence model that could potentially disrupt developments in the sector.
But further gains in China were underpinned by weaker-than-expected purchasing managers’ index data, which highlighted a sustained slowdown in the Chinese economy.
Regional markets took a weak lead from Wall Street, with the US stock index in Asian trade as speculation over Deepseek battered major tech stocks, notably Nvidia ( NASDAQ 🙂 ). Shares sank more than 5% in 24-hour markets, Robinhood data showed.
China Tech rides on deepseek hype, but PMIS disappoints
Hong Kong’s index was the outlier among Asian peers on Monday, rising 0.6% on gains in heavy Internet stocks.
Majors Baidu (NASDAQ 🙂 Inc (HK 🙂 ), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (HK 🙂 and Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK 🙂 rose between 0.9% and 3.5%.
Sentiment for Chinese Internet stocks was boosted by the release of Deepseek’s R1, a big-name model that claimed to rival offerings from OpenAi and Meta ( NASDAQ 🙂 at a fraction of the cost.
LLM raised hopes that Chinese companies could offer competitive AI products despite their lack of access to cutting-edge AI technology from giants like Nvidia.
Major Chinese chipmaker stocks such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (HK 🙂 and Sunny Optical Technology Group Co Ltd (HK 🙂 rallied on the term last week, though they fell on Monday on some profit-taking.
China and indices were less optimistic, rising only slightly. Sentiment towards broader Chinese markets was dampened by softer-than-expected PMI data for January, which showed an unexpected contraction in activity and a sharp slowdown in growth.
The reading showed China’s economy struggled despite recent support measures from Beijing and the government is likely to need more support. The outlook for higher US trade tariffs is also dim for China.
Chinese markets will be closed for the weeklong Lunar New Year annual holiday from Tuesday.
Asian stocks rallied on Trump’s jolt,, Fed caution
Broader Asian markets retreated on Monday, although regional trading volumes were muted ahead of several regional holidays this week. Beyond China, markets in Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong will also be closed this week.
Risk appetite was whetted by Trump imposing 25% trade tariffs on Colombia, prompting fears that he might follow suit with tariff threats against Canada, Mexico and China.
Japan fell 0.4%, while it rose 0.5%.
Singapore’s index fell 0.3%, while South Korea was flat.
For the Indian index, it pointed to a weak open as local markets face several key events this week, including big earnings and.
Australian markets were closed for the holiday.
The broader market focus is also on this week, where the central bank is expected to keep rates steady.
