Trump said the US clash with Venezuela went very well and that its confrontation with Iran is also progressing very, very smoothly.

At midday in Hong Kong the HSI was down 0.49% and the Hang Seng Tech Index down 0.19%. Half-day turnover reached HK$135.16 bln. Sector leaders: optical communications, PCB, semiconductor stocks and pharma outsourcing/CRO names. Laggards: pork producers, online education and mainland banks. Notable movers: WuXi AppTec (02359.HK) up >10%; Zhipu (02513.HK) up >7%; Huahong Hongli (01347.HK) up >4%; CATL (03750.HK) up >3%. Decliners included MINIMAX-W (00100.HK) down ~5%, XPeng (09868.HK) down >4% and Li Auto (02015.HK) down >3%.

Dollar index (DXY) rose above 100, up 0.26% intraday.