Shares were mostly higher in Asia today as investors digested the latest developments regarding North Korea and Italian politics. Crude oil extended losses as traders braced for output increases.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index was nearly flat at 22,445.27 while South Korea's Kospi rose 0.8 percent to 2,480.92. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.7 percent to 30,789.60 but the Shanghai Composite in mainland China climbed 0.2 percent to 3,147.36. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.6 percent to 5,999.90.
Taiwan's benchmark rose and Southeast Asian shares were mostly higher.
President Donald Trump's latest reversal on a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in's impromptu meeting with Kim on Saturday eased fears over the Korean Peninsula's nuclear crisis.
Trump tweeted that a US team is in North Korea to make arrangements for the planned June 12 summit in Singapore, days after he said the US was withdrawing from the meeting.
Meanwhile, Moon revealed details about his surprise meeting Saturday with Kim in the Panmunjom truce village, saying Kim had committed to sitting down with Trump and to a "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
"There's a lot of crossed signals that are coming out. We've got slight positive on risk sentiment from Europe but we know that's very difficult to hold on to, given how emotional Italian politics are," said Stephen Innes, head of Asian trading at OANDA. On Trump and Kim, "we've been down this road many times before, this is a path well worn, and realistically to start chasing risk based on this summit coming back on again could be could be a little bit misguided in the sense we've still got a long way to go."
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content