Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech at the Boao Forum appears to have gone down well with investors across Asia.
Based on wire headlines from Reuters, Xi made all the right noises when it came to the outlook for Chinese trade policy, helping to calm investor nerves that have been rattled over the past month as trade tensions between the United States and China increased.
Of note, Xi told the forum that globalization was an irreversible trend, adding that China would do its part by taking major measures to open up its economy as soon as possible and widen market access to foreign-funded firms.
Xi also said China would protect intellectual-property rights of foreign firms, helping to address one of the key concerns the Trump administration pointed to at the start of the latest trade spat.
Xi added that he hoped developed nations would remove barriers on high-tech exports to China — another key factor in the recent escalation in trade tensions with the US.
As seen in the chart below from Westpac Bank, China's trade surplus with the US has ballooned over the past decade as exports to the US grew substantially faster than imports heading in the other direction.
In an attempt to reduce the trade imbalance between the two nations, the US has threatened tariffs on more than $150 billion in Chinese goods entering the country, accounting for about 6.6% of China's exports last year.
Financial markets have reacted positively to Xi's conciliatory speech, bidding up riskier assets such as stocks and commodity currencies like the Australian dollar.
As a proxy for trade-war concerns, there are few better financial indicators out there than movements in the Australian dollar-Japanese yen cross.
It's up 0.84% for the session and at its highest level in nearly a month, indicating that Xi's speech has helped to calm investor concerns.
US S&P 500 stock futures are also rallying, up 0.8% as of 1:50 p.m. in Sydney.
Australia ASX 200 5,847.70 , 0.67%
NZ NZX 50 8,466.21 , 0.14%
Japan TOPIX 1734.77 , 0.52%
Shanghai Comp 3,154.26 , 0.51%
Shenzhen Comp 1,826.08 , -0.31%
HK Hang Seng 30,485.53 , 0.85%
Sth Korea KOSPI 2,445.90 , 0.07%
Singapore STI 3,459.75 , 0.28%
Taiwan TAIEX 10,956.74 , 0.58%
Philippines PSI 7,932.39 , -0.17%
Indonesia JKSE 7,932.39 , 0.43%
Thailand SET 1,750.68 , -0.03%
S&P 500 Futures 2,640.25 , 0.81%
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