SHANGHAI: Asian stocks were flat in early trade on Wednesday after Wall Street ended higher, with the SP 500 index touching a record high on Tuesday, and as lower-level trade talks between the US and China due this week boost hopes of easing trade tensions. But concerns over the broader impact of the legal problems of two close associates of US President Donald Trump pulled SP futures lower, weighing on investor sentiment. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was flat, while Japan's Nikkei stock index .N225 lost 0.2 per cent. Australian shares fell 0.5 per cent after a leadership challenge to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Tuesday. “With leadership changes and disunity amongst the major parties having marked Australian politics for a decade now, the disruption is likely to be met negatively by business,” ANZ analysts said in a note. On Tuesday, the SP 500 .SPX rose as high as 2,873.23, topping the previous record of 2,872.87 set on Jan.

26, and is poised to become the longest-running bull market in the index's history on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI closed up 0.25 per cent to 25,821.95, the SP 500 .SPX rose 0.21 per cent to 2,862.91, and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 0.49 per cent to 7,859.17. But SP 500 E-mini futures ESc1 were 0.5 per cent lower on Wednesday at 2847.75, after a guilty plea from US President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, and the conviction of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. “Next to these headlines, trade news fell completely under the radar,” Citi analysts said, noting “concern that something could come out linked to Trump or other of his associates” and that Cohen’s guilty plea sparked a late-session bid in US treasuries. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR fell to 2.8225 per cent compared with its US close of 2.844 per cent on Tuesday. The dollar weakened, as comments from US President Donald Trump on Monday in an interview with Reuters continued to weigh. Trump said he was “not thrilled” with the Fed under his appointee Chairman Jerome Powell for raising rates, and said the US central bank should do more to boost the economy. He also accused China and Europe of manipulating their currencies. The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was down 0.1 per cent at 95.184. The dollar dropped 0.2 per cent against the yen to 110.11 JPY=, edging closer to the key 110 level.

The euro EUR= was up 0.05 per cent on the day at $1.1577. In commodity markets, US crude CLc1 ticked up 0.3 per cent to $66.05 a barrel.

Brent crude LCOc1 was 0.2 per cent higher at $72.76 per barrel. Gold gained, with spot gold XAU= trading 0.1 per cent higher at $1196.95 per ounce.