U.S. President Donald Trump will test his deal-making prowess in a region battered by his hardball trade policies on a trip to Asia next week, as doubts hang over his highly anticipated meeting with China's Xi Jinping.

Asian shares are mostly higher after the White House confirmed plans for President Donald Trump to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week

While Trump said weeks ago that he would meet with Xi at the APEC summit, no date had been announced. The meeting would be Thursday morning local time in Busan, South Korea. On Wednesday, Trump predicted that the two leaders would come to agreements on everything from trade to nuclear power.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump departs for Malaysia late on Friday night and will also visit South Korea, where he will meet Xi next Thursday.

U.S. stocks hit records on Friday after an update on inflation came in a bit less painful than feared. The S&P 500 rose 0.8% and topped its prior all-time high, which was set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 472 points,

US President Donald Trump is aiming for a quick win in a pivotal Thursday meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, even if the outcome falls short of the sweeping deal he’s teased on issues at the heart of the rivalry between the world’s two largest economies.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he expected to reach agreements with Chinese President Xi Jinping when they meet in South Korea next week that could range from resumed soybean purchases by Beijing to limits on nuclear weapons.

US and Chinese officials are set to convene another round of trade negotiations in Malaysia this weekend, as the two rival powers seek to salvage fragile relations ahead of a highly anticipated meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.