Investors await result of Trump’s meeting with EU boss

to introduce tariffs on $20 billion (R267.47bn) of US goods if Washington imposes levies on imported cars.

A monthly survey of German business confidence also showed some impact from the row, although there was no major plunge and traders in most markets seemed content to hold positions steady.

China’s yuan had eased off a 13-month low, which also soothed some nerves, while most major currencies, bond benchmarks and oil were tucked in tight ranges.

“We have seen a lot of complacency over this entire trade war, so the question is, unless we see a very negative outcome (from the EU-US meeting), are we going to see a marked reaction?” Rabobank strategist Bas van Geffen said. “It is an odd one, where two key trade partners, but also two key allies, are now fighting each other.”

With another blizzard of multinational corporate earnings, a European Central Bank meeting and US GDP figures still to come this week, there was scope for volatility.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies, was just off a two-week low at 94.506 and barely budged at $1.1 against the euro and 111.24 yen.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which tends to act as the benchmark for global borrowing costs, eased to 2.937 percent, after climbing to a six-week peak of 2.973 percent.

Bond yields have been pushed up this week on speculation the Bank of Japan is edging closer to unwinding its aggressive stimulus programme.

But with the ECB meeting looming today, most bond yields in the euro area also edged down yesterday.

Britain’s pound nudged up to $1.31 after UK Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday that she would now lead negotiations on the country’s departure from the EU.

Turkey’s lira also clawed higher, having sunk more than 3 percent on Tuesday, after its central bank shied away from raising rates in what was seen as another hit to its shredded credibility.

State Street Global Advisers currency portfolio manager Aaron Hurd said the worry is that President Tayyip Erdogan’s government will put pressure on the central bank to keep rates down, fuelling what is already double-digit inflation.

“The new (finance) minister and the new cabinet in total is an unknown quantity, and we have to wait and see and learn how to interpret their behaviours,”