Asian stock markets trade mixed ahead of Trump's first major policy address to Congress

While Asian stock market indices were trading mixed on Tuesday (28 February), the Shanghai Composite rose 0.23% at 3,236.08 as of 5.47am GMT as investors await US President Donald Trump's first major policy address to Congress.

Trump is expected to provide insights into his economic policies. On Monday, he said he would reveal more about his plans for "big" infrastructure spending in his address, leading to a positive effect on Wall Street. But the sentiment seemed to have failed to shift to Asia.

Ayako Sera, market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, explained that investors appeared sceptical of the speech and feared it could be a repeat of Trump's inauguration address. "This could be like the case of his inauguration speech, in which expectations were high, but he didn't come up with any concrete details. The market does not want a repeat of that, and wants to hear some actual plans, or there will be disappointment," she was quoted as explaining by Reuters.

Indices in the region were trading as follows at 5.56am GMT:

On 27 February the FTSE 100 closed 0.13% higher at 7,253.00 while the S&P 500 index closed 0.10% higher at 2,369.75.

Among commodities, oil prices were in the green amid expectations that the higher US crude inventories would be offset by production cuts by Opec members as part of their recent pledge. As of 12.47am EST, WTI crude oil was up 0.24% at $54.18 (£43.55) a barrel, while Brent crude was trading 0.38% higher at $56.14 a barrel.