Category: News

Asian share markets and the dollar made a soft start on Monday as U.S.-China trade tensions continued to simmer, while investors turned defensive ahead of key U.S. jobs data and a widely expected cut in European interest rates.There was little obvious reaction to President Donald Trump's threat late Friday to double tariffs on imported steel and aluminium to 50%, beginning on June 4, a sudden twist that drew the ire of European Union negotiators.Speaking on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump would soon speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping to iron out a dispute over critical minerals.Beijing then forcefully rejected Trump's trade criticism, suggesting a call might be some time coming.White House officials also continued to play down a court ruling that Trump had overstepped his authority by imposing across-the-board duties on imports from U.S. trading partners."The court ruling will complicate the path ahead on trade policy, but there remains an ample set of provisions available to the administration to deliver its desired results," said Bruce Kasman, chief economist at JPMorgan."There is a commitment to maintaining a minimum U.S. tariff rate of at least 10% and imposing further sector tariff increases," he added. "An increase in ASEAN to discourage…

TRADING DAYMaking sense of the forces driving global marketsBy Lewis Krauskopf, Markets CorrespondentThe Moody's downgrade of the U.S. credit rating rippled through markets on Monday and put fresh focus on the nation's fiscal outlook. Long-dated Treasury yields rose, the dollar fell, while stocks edged higher after rebounding from sharp declines early in the session.Jamie is enjoying some well-deserved time off, but check out his latest column examining Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's legacy as the central bank prepares to release its new review later this year.I'd love to hear from you, so please reach out to me with comments at [email protected]'s Key Market MovesToday's Key ReadsDealing with the US downgradeThe landmark downgrade of the U.S. sovereign credit rating dominated markets on Monday, the first full trading day since Moody's Investors Service cut the country's pristine rating late on Friday.The move by Moody's to cut the "Aaa" rating for the U.S. rippled through Treasury markets, with the decision drawing attention to the country's deteriorating fiscal outlook. The ratings agency cited concerns about the nation's growing $36 trillion debt pile.Longer-dated Treasury yields climbed. The 30-year yield initially broke above 5% and hit an 18-month high. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury…

Asian stocks rose on Tuesday while U.S. Treasury yields steadied allowing a bit of a breathing room for the U.S. dollar as investors took stock of the debt load of the world's biggest economy and awaited trade deals.Moody's downgrade of its rating for U.S. sovereign credit last week - due to concerns about that nation's growing $36 trillion debt pile - led to a selloff in Treasuries on Monday but that stabilised by Asian trading hours on Tuesday."The Moody's downgrade was a temporary shock and rather meaningless in the bigger picture," said Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com."But then we're not really being fed any kind of fresh new news for investors to buy into... We haven't gotten any new deals coming through."With little indication of trade deals on the way, markets are struggling for direction, analysts said.The 30-year bond yield was 3.5 basis points lower at 4.906% after hitting an 18-month high of 5.037% in the previous trading session. Major U.S. stock indexes recovered from early loss to end mostly flat.That left the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) 0.36% higher, hovering near the seven-month high touched last week. Japan's Nikkei (.N225) gained 0.65%…

China on Monday called on the United States to take responsible policy measures to maintain the stability of the international financial and economic system and safeguard the interests of investors.A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson made the comments at a daily press briefing when asked about Moody's downgrade of the U.S. sovereign credit rating due to concerns about the nation's growing debt pile.Source: Reuters.com

Asian shares slipped on Monday as a mixed bag of Chinese economic data showed the domestic economy was struggling even as U.S. tariffs began to bite into exports, while the White House kept up its rhetorical pressure on trade partners.Wall Street share futures also slipped with the dollar, while Treasury yields rose as concerns about erratic U.S. economic policies were underlined by Moody's downgrade of the country's credit rating.Unease over the United States' $36 trillion of debt has also mounted as Republicans seek to approve a sweeping package of tax cuts, which some estimate could add $3 trillion to $5 trillion in new debt over the next decade.U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent used television interviews on Sunday to dismiss the downgrade, while warning trade partners they would be hit with maximum tariffs if they did not offer deals in "good faith".Bessent is off to a G7 meeting this week for more talks, while U.S. Vice President JD Vance and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met on Sunday to discuss trade."It remains to be seen whether the 10% reciprocal rate - excluding Canada and Mexico - will broadly remain, or will go up or down for some countries," said…

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Stella QiuThe week started with a bang but by Friday the risk-on rally - supercharged by a China-U.S. trade truce - was wearing thin as traders grew wary that the rebound had overshot and that more twists and turns lie ahead in the trade saga.Wall Street and European stock futures are little changed while Asian shares are mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index (.HSI) fell 0.8%, weighed down by Alibaba's (9988.HK) more than 5% tumble after its earnings failed to impress investors. Australian shares fared better, rising 0.7%.The stock market now seems to be acting as if the tariff war never happened. The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) is hovering just below a seven-month top. Even Chinese blue chips (.CSI300) have recovered all of the losses since April 2 when President Donald Trump announced "reciprocal" tariffs - since put on hold - on the rest of the world.Beaten-down bond markets cheered an unexpected fall in U.S. producer prices and a soft core retail sales print, prompting investors to nudge up their rate cut outlook for the Fed, pricing in a total of 56 basis…

The Reserve Bank of Australia will cut its key rate by 25 basis points on Tuesday and twice more this year as core inflation remains within its target range while trade tensions fuel growth concerns, a Reuters poll found.After it held borrowing costs steady in April there has been a shift in expectations regarding the RBA, from three 25 basis-point cuts before last month's meeting to four this year amid global trade uncertainties and core inflation cooling to 2.9% in the March quarter.Recently, the United States and China agreed to a 90-day truce in their trade war.The Reuters poll, conducted May 12–15, showed near-unanimous expectations for the Reserve Bank of Australia to cut its key rate (AUCBIR=ECI) by 25 basis points to 3.85% at the end of its two-day policy meeting on May 20, with 42 of 43 economists forecasting the move.NAB was the only major bank to predict a 50 basis-point cut, while ANZ, CBA and Westpac all anticipate a quarter-point reduction."Following tariff news at the start of April, we shifted our expectations. We're expecting the cash rate will go to 3.35% now. That shift was really a rough lesson of a very changing, uncertain global environment where global…

Asian stocks were ending a strong week on a softer note on Friday as the euphoria over U.S.-China trade talks faded, while revived bets for policy easing in the United States sparked a rally in beaten-down bond markets.Oil prices steadied after plunging over 2% overnight on news of a potential U.S.-Iran nuclear deal, but they are still up 1% for the week as the global economic outlook brightened.In Asia, shares of Alibaba (9988.HK) slumped 6.8% after the tech giant's quarterly revenue failed to impress investors. Their U.S.-listed shares slumped 7.6% overnight.It has been a strong week for global sharemarkets as investors cheered the trade war truce between the U.S. and China, which has greatly lessened the chance of a global recession. However, there are signs for caution heading into the weekend.Investors went back to selling the U.S. dollar against the safe-haven currencies on Friday, with the dollar down 0.4% on the Japanese yen and slipping 0.3% on the Swiss franc ."The markets confront a weekend with less risk of carrying open positions than last, with no major trade talks or significant risks on the calendar," said Kyle Rodda, senior analyst at Capital.com"However, there is always a slight risk-off bias going…

Stocks struggled for direction on Thursday while the dollar stumbled as the euphoria from market tailwinds earlier in the week fizzled out, with traders looking to U.S. data later in the day for further catalysts.U.S. Treasury yields were elevated and the benchmark 10-year yield rose to a one-month top, in part due to worries over President Donald Trump's budget package that would add trillions of dollars to the U.S. debt.Investors were greeted with a plethora of good news earlier this week from a U.S.-China trade-war truce to a raft of headline-grabbing investment deals from the Middle East during Trump's Gulf tour, in moves that breathed new life into battered global stocks.But most of the optimism died down by Thursday, leaving MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was little changed and Wall Street futures slightly lower after notching marginal gains during the overnight cash session."We've had a huge party, everyone's hung over, and now we're just recuperating and waiting for the next big party," said Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG.While the trade deal between the U.S. and China gave markets some reason to cheer, the absence of clarity over Trump's trade policies has left markets with…

Stocks edged up in Asia on Wednesday while the dollar wobbled as relatively benign U.S. inflation data fed into prospects of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve later this year even as investors were still gauging if the worst of the trade conflicts was over.As U.S. President Donald Trump's global trade war appeared to hit pause, led by a truce in the tariff spat between China and the United States, financial markets remained nervous about the outlook."I'm just a little bit cautious here about chasing the rally in stocks at this level," said IG analyst Tony Sycamore. "We've got to wait to see what happens with regards to headlines and the framework around further tariff negotiations with other countries, but you know at this point of time the worst-case scenario has been priced out."MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was up 0.9% in early trade after U.S. stocks climbed back into positive territory for the year, erasing losses triggered by Trump's chaotic rollout of sweeping tariffs.Hong Kong's Hang Seng index (.HSI) rose in early trading lifted by tech stocks after Chinese e-commerce retailer JD.com (9618.HK) posted strong results. Investor focus this week will be on earnings from…