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U.S. deal with UK is first since Trump's tariff pause

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U.S. officials to meet with Chinese negotiators on

Saturday

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Japan shares buoyed by weaker yen, but China stocks

struggle

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Bitcoin leaps to highest since January; gold falls for

third day

By Kevin Buckland

TOKYO, May 9 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks jumped on

Friday, supported by the dollar's surge against the yen, after a

U.S. trade deal with Britain fuelled hopes of progress in tariff

talks with other countries.

Bitcoin soared to the highest since January and U.S. crude

ticked up after a more than 3% surge on Thursday, when President

Donald Trump announced the agreement with British Prime Minister

Keir Starmer - the first in the month since Trump started a

90-day pause on trade tariffs to allow room for negotiations.

At the same time, concerns that the limited trade agreement

with London may not provide much of a blueprint for additional

deals cooled optimism around the outcome of Sino-U.S. trade

talks set for Saturday in Switzerland.

Mainland blue chips started the day 0.2% lower,

while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.2%.

Japan's Nikkei and broader Topix each

climbed about 1.2%, with the Topix set to extend its winning

streak to an 11th session, the longest run since October 2017.

Taiwan's equity benchmark advanced 1%, while

Australian stocks added 0.4%.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan

was broadly flat.

"The deal between the U.S. and UK was more style over

substance," said Kyle Rodda, a senior financial markets analyst

at Capital.com.

"However, it feeds the narrative that the U.S. is looking to

bang-out rapid fire trade deals and reduce tariffs - at the

margins - and other trade barriers," Rodda said.

"Constructive language and statements of intent will likely

be enough to drive stocks higher off the back of the U.S.-China

trade talks."

Trump pushed back against seeing the UK deal as a template

for other negotiations.

The "general terms" agreement leaves in place a 10% tariff

on goods imported from the UK but lowers prohibitive U.S. duties

on UK car exports. Britain agreed to lower its tariffs to 1.8%

from 5.1% and provide greater access to U.S. goods.

Last week, Trump said he has "potential" trade deals with

India, South Korea and Japan.

Nymex crude ticked up 0.2% to $60.02 per barrel early

on Friday, building on the previous day's 3.2% surge. Brent

crude added 0.3% to $63 per barrel, following Thursday's

2.8% rally.

Safe-haven gold continued its slide, weakening 0.5%

to around 3,288 an ounce, after dropping 3.6% in the past two

sessions.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the currency

against six major peers, edged up 0.1% to reach a one-month peak

at 100.77.

The euro sagged to a one-month trough at $1.12105,

and sterling slipped to a three-week low of $1.32205.

The yen ticked up slightly to 145.77 per dollar,

but that was after a 1.5% tumble on Thursday, when it touched a

one-month low of 146.175.

Higher U.S. Treasury yields helped support the greenback,

with the 10-year yield steady at 4.3687% following

Thursday's 10-basis point jump as demand for the safety of bonds

ebbed.

Bitcoin was also buoyed by the improvement in market

sentiment, rising to the highest since January 31 at

$103,090.17, and closing the distance with the all-time high

from January 20 at $109,071.86.

Standard Chartered's Geoffrey Kendrick no longer sees risk

sentiment as the main driver for the world's biggest

cryptocurrency.

"It is now all about flows, and flows are coming in many

forms," said Kendrick, the bank's global head of digital assets

research, pointing to an influx of cash into bitcoin ETFs, as

well as buying by so-called whales.

"I think a fresh all-time high for bitcoin is coming soon,"

he said. "I apologise that my $120,000 Q2 target may be too

low."