ECONOMY
On Monday , Asian Indices steady start as investors tried to catch their breath following another week of escalating trade tensions between the United States and China.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to return to power with an even bigger majority in parliament after a mammoth general election that ended on Sunday, exit polls showed, a far better showing than expected in recent weeks.
The modest gains on Monday came even as financial markets remained on edge over the intensifying Sino-U.S. trade war, with the Trump administration last week adding Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to a trade blacklist.
In early trade, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan tacked on 0.6% after a steep 3% loss the previous week. U.S. S&P 500 e-mini futures also turned higher, rising 0.5% following losses on Wall Street on Friday.
Australian shares jumped 1.4% after the center-right Liberal National Coalition pulled off a shock win in federal elections, beating the left-wing Labor Party.
Google’s suspension of business with Huawei signals that even though the trade talks are being characterized as being stalled, when we factor in China saying there is no point (in) U.S. negotiators coming to Beijing in current circumstances as they did Friday, then the chance of a G20 deal seem more remote.
CURRENCY
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was down a touch at 97.980.
The dollar added 0.2% against the yen to 110.30, and the euro was up 0.1% at $1.1165.
China’s offshore yuan rebounded after touching its weakest level against the dollar since November on Friday. It was last trading at 6.9280 per dollar. In onshore trading on Friday, the yuan weakened past the psychologically important 6.9 per dollar level to end at its softest level in 19 weeks. However, sources say the country’s central bank is expected to use foreign exchange intervention and monetary policy tools to stop it weakening past the 7-per-dollar level in the near term.
The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes rose to 2.4068% compared with a U.S. close of 2.393% on Friday, while the two-year yield touched 2.2187%, up from Friday’s U.S. close of 2.202%.
COMMODITY
Oil markets, however, saw some active trade early on after Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said on Sunday that there was consensus among the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to maintain production cuts to “gently” reduce inventories.
Both U.S. crude and Brent crude jumped more than 1% following the minister’s comments, with West Texas Intermediate fetching $63.51 a barrel and Brent crude at $73.05 per barrel.
Spot gold was 0.1% higher at $1,278.42 per ounce.
Comentários