Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, U.S.-China meeting

Asia-Pacific markets were set to open higher Thursday as investors look to a high-stakes meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for clues on the future of U.S.-China ties and global trade.

Trump landed in Beijing Wednesday for the closely watched summit, accompanied by a group of U.S. executives, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Nvidia boss Jensen Huang.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was poised to rise, with the Chicago futures contract at 63,590 and its Osaka counterpart last trading at 63,490 compared with the index’s previous close of 63,272.11.

Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 26,799, higher than the index’s last close of 26,388.44.

In Australia, futures last traded at 8,636, slightly above the S&P/ASX 200′s last close at 8,630.4.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs said they expect the Trump-Xi meeting to focus narrowly on trade and export controls, including tariffs, restrictions on rare earths and semiconductors, rather than producing a sweeping reset in bilateral ties.

The investment bank said China could agree to step up purchases of U.S. farm goods, energy and aircraft in exchange for avoiding further tariff hikes.

“While unlikely to be a game changer for US-China relations, we think the meeting could act as a tactical catalyst for strength in the Chinese yuan and Chinese equities,” Goldman’s analysts wrote in a note late Wednesday.

The bank maintained a positive view on China assets, citing the country’s export competitiveness and what it described as an “undervalued” currency, while reiterating an overweight call on Chinese equities, particularly mainland A-shares over Hong Kong-listed H-shares.

In the U.S., futures were little changed. S&P futures and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.1% and 0.4%, respectively. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 111 points, or nearly 0.3%.

Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose to a new all-time high as traders’ enthusiasm for the technology trade overshadowed yet another hotter-than-expected inflation report.

The broad market index rose 0.58% to 7,444.25, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.2% to end at 26,402.34. Both hit fresh intraday and closing records. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 67.36 points, or 0.14%, ending at 49,693.20.

— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Sean Conlon contributed to this report.