By Marketwatch and Associated Press

Reuters
Asian markets were muted in early trading Tuesday amid positive developments on the U.S.-China trade front.
President Donald Trump said Monday that trade negotiations on a “phase one” deal are going faster than expected, and said the deal would “take care of “ U.S. farmers and bankers. Later in the day, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said it is considering extending tariff exemptions that were approved last December on $34 billion in Chinese goods.
The news did not boost Chinese stocks though. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index /zigman2/quotes/210598030/delayed HK:HSI +0.54% slipped 0.3% after administrator Carrie Lam said the ongoing pro-democracy protests risked sending the city into recession, while the Shanghai Composite /zigman2/quotes/210598127/delayed CN:SHCOMP +0.76% fell 0.4% and the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite /zigman2/quotes/210598015/delayed CN:399106 +0.65% retreated 0.3%. Japan’s Nikkei /zigman2/quotes/210597971/delayed JP:NIK +0.07% rose 0.5% and South Korea’s Kospi /zigman2/quotes/210598069/delayed KR:180721 +0.62% slipped 0.2%. Benchmark indexes in Taiwan /zigman2/quotes/210597977/delayed TW:Y9999 +0.04% , Singapore /zigman2/quotes/210597985/delayed SG:STI +0.50% and Indonesia /zigman2/quotes/210597981/delayed ID:JAKIDX +0.50% were up slightly. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 /zigman2/quotes/210598100/delayed AU:XJO +0.34% was little changed.
Among individual stocks, Mazda Motor /zigman2/quotes/204777714/delayed JP:7261 +2.09% and Kobe Steel /zigman2/quotes/207391157/delayed JP:5406 +1.73% gained in Tokyo trading while Canon /zigman2/quotes/207639533/delayed JP:7751 +0.14% fell. In Hong Kong, food processor WH Group /zigman2/quotes/204247792/delayed HK:288 +0.82% surged while HSBC /zigman2/quotes/202687335/delayed HK:5 +0.09% and Tencent /zigman2/quotes/204605823/delayed HK:700 +2.02% dropped. Samsung /zigman2/quotes/209800866/delayed KR:005930 +1.10% inched down in South Korea, while BHP /zigman2/quotes/201448516/delayed AU:BHP +0.61% and Rio Tinto /zigman2/quotes/200083756/delayed AU:RIO +0.37% gained in Australia.












































