Asian shares gain on trade deal hopes

Stock markets in Asia gained on Thursday on hopes that China and the United States may soon seal a preliminary deal to end their 17-month trade war, but conflicting signals from US President Donald Trump kept a lid on investor optimism.

Hopes that an agreement would soon emerge stemmed from a Bloomberg report on Wednesday that the two sides were close to a "phase one" deal, and US President Donald Trump's remarks that the talks were going "very well" after he had earlier said it might take until late 2020 to reach the accord.

As investors tilted towards optimism riskier assets rose and safe havens like the Japanese yen weakened.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.4%. Japan's Nikkei stock index gained 0.7%, Australian shares were up 1%, and in China, both blue chips and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.3%.

US stock futures fell 0.04% on Thursday in Asia after the S&P 500 gained 0.63% on Wednesday.

Analysts warn that more market turbulence is possible given Sino-US negotiations are very fluid.

If China and the United States cannot reach an agreement soon, the next important date to watch is Dec. 15, when Washington is scheduled to impose even more tariffs on Chinese goods.

Traders are also bracing for the closely-watched U.S. non-farm payrolls report due Friday to determine how well the US economy is holding up amid a global slowdown.