With earnings season almost coming to an end... it seems we have more positive than negative news, which may continue to support equities
Hussein Sayed, chief market strategist at FXTM
singapore — European shares were higher Thursday after the US and China kicked off two days of trade talks in Beijing. The aim is to forestall further tariff hikes in a bruising dispute over Beijing’s technology policies.
In Europe, France’s CAC 40 jumped 0.6 per cent to 5,104.69 and Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3 per cent to 7,215.58. Germany’s DAX added 0.3 per cent to 11,201.64, even as the country reported that it narrowly avoided a recession in the fourth quarter with zero growth. Wall Street was set for gains at the open. The future contract for the S&P 500 index rose 0.3 per cent to 2,756.80, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average also climbed 0.3 per cent, to 25,571.00.
Barring a breakthrough, the US is set to raise tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods on March 2. President Donald Trump has hinted that he might refrain from that increase if negotiations make enough progress.
On Wednesday, Trump told reporters discussions were “going along very well.” A Bloomberg report, which cited unnamed people familiar with the matter, said Trump was mulling a 60-day extension.
“With the earnings season almost coming to an end, asset prices will begin to fluctuate on daily news headlines. So far, it seems we have more positive than negative news which may continue to support equities,” Hussein Sayed, Chief Market Strategist at FXTM, said in a commentary.
On Thursday, China said its exports expanded 9.1 per cent in January from a year earlier to $217.6 billion, reversing a decline in December. But its exports to the United States fell 2.4 per cent to $36.4 billion and imports from the U.S. plunged 41.2 per cent to $9.2 billion. The country’s overall imports dropped 1.5 per cent to 178.4 billion.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged 0.2 per cent lower to 28,432.05. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.1 per cent to 6,059.40 while the Kospi in South Korea rebounded 1.1 per cent to 2,225.85. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.1 per cent to 2,719.70. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 finished almost flat at 21,139.71, despite preliminary data showing that its economy grew by 1.4 per cent in 2018’s fourth quarter, helped by strong domestic demand. Shares were flat in Taiwan but rose in Singapore and the Philippines.
Oil rose for a third day on Thursday to reach its highest so far this year. The price of crude has risen 20 per cent this year, driven primarily by the prospect of a decline in oil supply from Opec and other top exporters such as Russia.
“This rally that we’re seeing over the last two to three days is completely justified when you put the predicted Opec production cuts into your global oil supply and demand equation,” Tamas Varga of PVM Oil Associates said.
Brent crude futures were up 95 cents at $64.56 a barrel by 1007 GMT, down from a session high of $64.81, while US crude futures rose 56 cents to $54.46 a barrel. jet orders. The dollar rose to 111.02 yen from 110.98 yen late Wednesday. The euro climbed to $1.1265 from $1.1261.
With the earnings season almost coming to an end, asset prices will begin to fluctuate on daily news headlines. So far, it seems we have more positive than negative news which may continue to support equities Hussein Sayed, chief Market
Strategist at FXTM