Asia markets strengthen ahead of Biden-Xi talks

Asia-Pacific markets rose on Tuesday as investors look ahead to highly anticipated talks between the U.S. and China as well as more economic data.

U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping’s will meet in-person in San Francisco later in the day, for the first time in about a year.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.34% higher at 32,695.93, while the Topix ended 0.37% higher at 2,345.29.

South Korea’s Kospi closed 1.23% higher at 2,433.25. The Kosdaq ended 2.55% higher at 794.19, snapping a five-day losing streak.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 ended 0.83% higher at 7,006.70, bouncing after two sessions of declines.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index inched 0.06% higher in the final hour of trading, while mainland China’s CSI 300 index added 0.07% to close at 3,582.06.

Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index ended Monday’s session near the flat line as traders prepared for the release of key U.S. inflation data.

It ended the day down 0.08%, while the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.22% lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.16%.

Headline inflation, due Tuesday, is expected to have grown 3.3% from 12 months earlier, according to economists polled by Dow Jones. The metric is also forecasted to have advanced 0.1% from the prior month.