Asian Markets Rise with Wall Street; Traders Eye Trump's Trade Policy as Dollar Stalls:

The U.S. dollar ranged and Asian stocks increased on Wednesday after Wall Street saw a boost owing to President Donald Trump's unclear approach to his trade policies with looming tariffs for the following week. Brace for March 2 deadline, not all countries will incur levies, said Trump on Monday. Some White House officials had hopes stemming from his announcement.

Trump initiated a new battlefront with a 25% secondary tax on oil and gas imports from Venezuela. Prices of oil surged at first, but were capped by relief from maritime security deals from the Black Sea that the U.S. gave during the Ukraine war, so the effect softens a bit.

Nikkei was up by 0.35% and KOSPI grew by 0.37% in Japan and South Korea, respectively. The Australian dollar eased down to $0.6298, and local stocks saw an increase of 0.76% backed by underwhelming relases in consumer price data.

Major index futures S&P 500 saw a boost of 0.08% following kis gain posted overnight of 0.16% reported. Chinese blue chips remained unchanged and the Hang Seng index of Hong Kong surged by 0.8%.

“Well ahead of the Trump administration’s trade policy decision next week, there remains an increased level of anxiety in the markets,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial markets analyst at Capital.com. "Nevertheless, because of the President’s more focused and less drastic approach to trade policies, that fear has been somewhat alleviated."

After losing 0.12% on Tuesday, which was the dollar index’s first loss in a week, the index which compares the value of the dollar to six other currencies increased in value by 0.07%.

Last week, index dropped down to 103.19 after nearing a five month low as fear of a economic recession due to Trump’s trade war loomed large. Over night data displayed that consumer confidence has dropped to astonishingly low levels and hasn't been seen for the past four years.

Ueda Kazuo, Governor of Bank of Japan, stated on Wednesday that the central bank has not met the inflation target yet which indicates a more gradual approach towards interest rate hikes. The dollar rose to 150.16 yen and the value of 10-year Japanese bonds grew, increasing it’s yield to the highest it’s been since 2008.

Additionally, Euro and pound dropped 0.09% and 0.1% respectively to switch to new values of 1.0782 dollars and 1.2931 dollars.

Gold declined slightly to approximately $3,019. It has been wandering aimlessly this week just under the record high 3,057.21 set on Thursday. Oil price rose higher unsparingly, as Brent crude futures rose 0.3% to $73.27 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures also rose unsparingly by 0.4% to $69.28 a barrel.