Asian shares climb as Trump says US-China trade deal near

Trump's upbeat comments ontradestoked confidence in Asia with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacificsharesoutside Japanup 0.29 per cent. Australian shares added 0.93 per centand Japan's Nikkei rose 0.39 per cent.

In Europe, pan-region Euro Stoxx 50 futures were up 0.16 per centat 3,710, German DAX futures gained 0.16 per centto 13,262.5 and FTSE futures rose 0.1 per centto 7,412.

Chinese blue-chipshares, in contrast, dropped 0.21 per centafter the data showed profits atChina's industrial firms declined in annual terms for the third consecutive month in October. The decline tracked sustained drops in producer prices and exports and underscored slowing momentum in the world's second-largest economy.

Trumpsaid on Tuesday the United States andChinaare close to agreement on the first phase of atradedealafter top negotiators from the two countries spoke by telephone and agreed to keep working on remaining issues.

The positive mood pushed Wall Street indexes to fresh record closing highs on Tuesday. But whileTrumpsaid Washington was in the "final throes" of work on atradedealwith Beijing, he also underscoredUSsupport for protesters in Hong Kong, seen as a sore point for Beijing.

Trump's comments came alongside softer-than-expected economic data from the United States, which showed a fourth straight monthly contraction in consumer confidence and an unexpected drop in new home sales in October.

However, consumer confidence still remained at levels able to support steady consumer spending, and the housing data for September was revised up, with purchases touching more than 12-year highs.

Kay Van-Petersen, the global macro strategist at Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore, said whileUS-Chinatradeheadlines may be driving some tactical,near-term moves in the market, they were mostly just "noise".

The broader market direction is "about the accommodative Fed and accommodative monetary policy and the fact that structurally the meta-trend is still lower in yields and rates," he said.

Some analysts said a fall inUSbond yields on Tuesday also pointed to more mechanical explanations beyondtradefor rising equity prices.

"It reinforces the notion that it really is the Fed pump-priming to grease the wheels of market liquidity which are driving both these moves," Greg McKenna, strategist at McKenna Macro, said in a morning note.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Monday monetary policy was "well-positioned" to support the strongUSlabor market.

On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2 per centto 28,121.68, the S&P 500 gained 0.22per centto 3,140.52 and the Nasdaq Compositeadded 0.18 per centto 8,647.93. All three indexes notched record closing highs.

On Wednesday, the rally in USTreasuries moderated across the curve, with benchmark 10-year notesyielding 1.7431 per cent, up from theirUSclose of 1.74 per centon Tuesday.

The two-year yield watched as a guide to market expectations of Fed policy, rose to 1.5939 per centcompared with theUSclose of 1.586 per cent.

In currency markets, the dollar strengthened 0.11 per cent against the yen to 109.15and the euroweakened 0.08 per centto buy $1.1009.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was up 0.09 per centat 98.341.

Oil prices retreated after rising Tuesday on reassuringtradeheadlines. The USWest Texas Intermediate crudewas down 0.21 per centat $58.29 per barrel.

Global benchmark Brent crude lost 0.11 per centto $64.20 per barrel.

Gold was lower, changing hands at $1,458.33 per ounce on the spot market, down 0.2 per cent.