FYI: U.S. stocks were set to open slightly lower Wednesday morning.
Market focus is largely attuned to global trade developments, after the U.S. delayed tariffs on some Chinese imports in the previous session.
Asian stocks climbed on Wednesday after the White House abruptly changed course to delay tariffs on Chinese imports, but European indexes slipped as data showed the German economy shrank in the second quarter.
The Trump administration on Tuesday postponed plans for new tariffs until December, sending U.S. indexes higher. Stocks in Asia followed suit, with shares in Shanghai up 0.4% and Japan’s Nikkei up 1%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was an outlier in the region to trade nearly flat, as the city continued to struggle with protests and violence.
Government bond markets showed continuing signs of caution with the yield on the 10-year German bond falling to a fresh record low of minus 0.622%, according to Tradeweb. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
The debilitating effect of trade tensions were also visible in Chinese data, as value-added industrial production in the country grew 4.8% in July, significantly lower than the 6.3% increase in June and below expectations of 5.9% growth.
Still, Asian stocks rallied on the tariff delay, which came amid concerns about the costs to American consumers during the holiday shopping season.
In commodities, gold prices edged down 0.3%, while Brent crude oil prices dropped 1%, pulling back from Tuesday’s near 5% rally.
Regards,
Ted
WSJ:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/asian-stocks-gain-on-tariff-delay-11565769562Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-13/stocks-to-rally-in-asia-on-tariff-delay-relief-markets-wrapIBD:
https://www.investors.com/market-trend/stock-market-today/dow-jones-futures-china-trade-war-news-apple-stock-market-rally-ipos-tilray-realreal/CNBC:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/14/stock-markets-wall-street-in-focus-amid-earnings-economic-data.htmlU.K.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-100-dips-as-focus-shifts-to-weak-china-data-idUKKCN1V40MIEurope:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-stocks/european-shares-dip-as-shrinking-german-economy-stokes-slowdown-fears-idUSKCN1V40NLAsia:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/asian-markets-rise-as-investors-relieved-by-trumps-tariff-reprieve-2019-08-13/printBonds:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/14/us-bonds-treasury-yields-mixed-as-recession-signal-nears-inversion.htmlCurrencies:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/14/forex-markets-japanese-yen-us-china-trade-war-in-focus.htmlOil:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/14/oil-markets-us-crude-inventories-in-focus.htmlGold:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/14/gold-markets-geopolitics-us-china-trade-in-focus.htmlCuirrent Futures:
https://finviz.com/futures.ashx
