GOOD MORNING ASIA

On Friday , Asian shares stood tall on hopes the leaders from the United States and China could strike a trade deal and as the Federal Reserve appeared to have all but abandoned a plan to raise borrowing rates further.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.1% after a stellar 7.2% gain in January.

Equity markets have also been relieved by a change of heart at the U.S. Federal Reserve, which this week surprised many by abandoning plans for further rate hikes.Investors responded by pricing in a one-in-three chance that interest rates could actually be cut this year.

The White House insistence that March 1 was a hard deadline for a deal, a failure of which would lead to an increase in U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.

The optimism supported Wall Street with the S&P 500 ending Thursday with a gain of 0.86%. The Nasdaq jumped 1.37% on the back of a near 11% rise in Facebook. The Dow slipped 0.06%.

Yields on two-year Treasuries were down 13 basis points on the week so far, which if sustained would be the largest weekly decline since January 2010.

Oil prices held slip , with U.S. crude futures gaining 0.11%, or 0.06, to $53.75 per barrel.