Asian stocks mixed on tariffs, Japan pushes higher as China retreats

• Despite broader market risk aversion on the back of trade wars, Japan remains buoyant.
• China, Australia, and emerging markets are all looking backwards today as trade wars continue to worsen.

Asian markets are going sideways for Tuesday after the US imposed $200 billion in tariffs against China, slated to come into effect September 24th. China and Australia are seeing red for the day while Japan is managing to escape relatively unscathed with Japanese equities punching in gains for the day.

Japan is hitting the ground running after a long weekend, with the Nikkei 225 opening the week a day late on Tuesday and vaulting to 1.41%, pinning the needle in the green zone while the Topix Index is also on course to erase recent losses, clipping 1.70% above the market's close last Friday.

In China, stocks are notably more sour, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index backing down -0.75% and Shanghai's CSI 300 index also shifting lower by a much softer -0.10%; Australia, China's closest trading partner, is also down -0.50% in knock-on selling, while emerging markets are also in the red for the day, with the MSCI broad Asia-Pacific index retreating -0.65% for Tuesday.

Nikkei 225 levels to watch

With the Nikkei vaulting over the 23,000 level at the week's open, Japan's leading equity index is clearing into fresh territory, although the major index still remains sharply off of 2018's highs at 24,130, while the recent run-up in the major bourse has left buyers with little support levels nearby, and a reversal could see the index tumbling back into the last swing low at 22,170.