Global Markets:
- Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 2.40%, Shanghai Composite up 0.73%, Hang Seng up 0.89%, ASX up 0.00%
- Commodities : Gold at $1352.80 (-0.16%), Silver at $16.73 (+0.25%), WTI Oil at $69.64 (+0.17%), Brent Oil at $65.75 (+0.31%)
- Rates : US 10-year yield at 2.852, UK 10-year yield at 1.444, Germany 10-year yield at 0.526
News & Data:
- (GBP) High Street Lending 38.1K vs 39.2K expected
- (JPY) SPPI y/y 0.60% vs 0.70% expected
- Japan approves bills to ratify successor to TPP free trade pact
- China's January-February industrial profit growth strong, but pace slows from 2017
- PBOC set the Yuan reference rate at 6.2816 – strongest since Aug. 11, 2015
Markets Update:
Asian equities traded higher today, as reports emerge of negotiations to avoid escalations over trade tariffs. Persons familiar with the situation said that White House officials are asking China to cut tariffs on imported cars, allow foreign majority ownership of financial services firms and buy more U.S.-made semiconductors.
Markets have taken this as a signal that the tariffs are posturing by the US government, an inference that is validated by the events around the steel tariffs, and NAFTA negotiations.
The news did not sit well with Korean companies – although the index was in the green, reports of China buying more US semiconductors affected Samsung and Hynix.
The positive news pulled down safe yen, and Nikkei’s gains due to the improved sentiment were amplified by the yen weakness, making it one of the highest daily gains in the last 3 months.
As expected, the surge in stocks drove down bond prices, with the yield on 10 year US treasury inching up to 2.856. Dollar was lower against a basket of major currencies, although it made gains against the yen. Commodities have also recovered, after volatile trading sessions in the past few days.
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