Asian stocks in the green as markets recover from trade war fears

Asian equity markets are rebounding for Wednesday as broader markets shrug off tariff battles between the US and China, and Japan's leading Nikkei 225 index is touching into 23,420 after surging higher into the mid-week.

The US unloaded another round of tariffs on China, targeting $200 billion USD worth of Chinese goods crossing the US border, but markets were almost relieved when the tariffs, which were feared to be as high as 25%, only came in at 10%, and Trump's revolving threat of even further tariffs on $267 billion in Chinese goods is being ignored as Asian equities take a breather after weeks of trade war tension.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index is up 1.27%, with the Tokyo Topix index also up a comparable 1.50%, while Australia remains comparatively more sedate, but still in the green at 0.47%; emerging markets are also getting a much-needed break, with the broad MSCI Asia-Pacific index rising by 0.62% for Wednesday, while Chinese equities experience a welcome rally, with the Hang Seng index clipping upwards by 0.97% and Shanghai's CSI 300 positive by 1.14%.

Nikkei 225 levels to watch

Previous resistance has turned into support for the leading Nikkei 225 index at the 23,000 technical handle after today's rally, and the gap between current prices and 2018's all-time high of 24,130 is suddenly much closer than before; despite beginning to look overextended on technical charts, there remains little resistance in the way of Nikkei bulls, while support firms up from the last meaningful swing low at 22,170.