Asian stocks made a tentative rebound in early trade on Tuesday, with an uneven recovery taking place across regional equity markets after signs that trade negotiations between the United States and China remain on track.

In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 79 points, or 0.31 percent, to open at 25,969.

On the mainland, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.55 percent to open at 3,910 while the Shenzhen Component Index opened 1.04 percent higher at 13,369.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was last up 0.5 percent, while the S&P 500 futures advanced 0.3 percent to extend the rebound on Wall Street after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed his boss, Donald Trump, remains on track to meet President Xi Jinping in South Korea in late October.

Wall Street's main indexes ended up to 2.2 percent higher on Monday, led by chipmakers, after Trump struck a more conciliatory tone about US-China trade tensions.

Broad gains for global equities had gone abruptly into reverse on Friday after Trump announced 100 percent tariffs on China, reviving memories of the market volatility after April's "Liberation Day" announcement. The selloff only halted after a conciliatory message from the US president on the Truth Social network.

Citi analysts wrote in a research report that they do not expect an escalation of trade tensions between Beijing and Washington.

"The reason is not so much the reassuring President Trump tweet over the weekend, but the fact that China may be the only country with bargaining power, where the US may have to be more flexible in its negotiation stance."

South Korea's Kospi index gained 1 percent on Tuesday as Samsung Electronics projected a 32 percent rise in third-quarter operating profit from a year earlier, beating analysts' estimates as demand for conventional memory chips helped offset the company's weaker high bandwidth memory chip sales.

Japan's Nikkei stock index was last down 1.2 percent as the country's markets reopened after a holiday, while Australian shares edged 0.1 percent lower.

Against the yen, the US dollar was last up 0.1 percent at 152.40 yen.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was last trading at 99.289.

Traders continue to expect easing from the Federal Reserve later this month is a near-certainty. Pricing of Fed funds futures implies a 97.8 percent probability of a 25-basis-points cut to interest rates at the Federal Open Market Committee's meeting on October 29, compared with a 98.3 percent chance a day earlier, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.

Gold gained 0.7 percent to US$4,138.39 per ounce, showing little sign of pausing for breath as precious metals continue to set records.(Reuters/Xinhua)