Asian stocks follow Wall Street lower on trade war fears

BEIJING – Asian stock markets on Thursday followed Wall Street lower after President Donald Trump reignited trade fears by saying he could impose more tariffs on Chinese imports.

Benchmarks in Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney all declined. Oil rebounded from the previous day’s losses.

Trump alarmed investors by saying he had $325 billion of Chinese imports available for additional tariffs “if we want.” That shook markets that had been reassured by Trump’s agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping in June to hold off on new trade penalties while they resume negotiations.

The Chinese government warned tariff hikes would “create a new obstacle” in talks on ending their bruising fight over Beijing’s technology ambitions.

Trump’s comment “cast a dark cloud over lingering concerns on trade talk progress,” said Mizuho bank analysts in a report.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.6% to 2,913.49 and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.6% to 21,128.12. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng retreated 0.4% to 28,465.17 and Seoul’s Kospi was 0.2% lower at 2,066.94.


Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 shed 0.3% to 6,655.60 and Taiwan and Southeast Asian markets also retreated. New Zealand gained.

On Wall Street, stocks extended their losses into a second day as railroad operator CSX had its biggest drop in 11 years, pulling other industrial companies down with it. CSX plunged 10.3% after saying it expects this year’s revenue to decline as much as 2%, after previously saying it expected growth.

Banks fell as investors worried lower interest rates will hurt profits. Investors expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates for the first time in a decade at their next policy meeting in two weeks.

Corporate earnings reports are getting into full swing this week, and investors have been mostly cautious in their assessments of them. Earnings are still expected to decline for S&P 500 companies in the second quarter.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude gained 1 cent to $56.79 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 84 cents on Wednesday to close at $56.78. Brent crude, used to price international oils, advanced 17 cents to $63.83 in London. It lost 69 cents the previous session to $63.66.

CURRENCY: The dollar declined to 107.73 yen from Wednesday’s 107.97 yen. The euro gained to $1.1239 from $1.1226./gsg

source: business.inquirer.net

Asian shares mostly lower as investors look to G-20 meeting

TOKYO – Asian shares were mostly lower Wednesday as investors awaited developments on the trade friction between the U.S. and China at the Group of 20 meeting of major economies in Japan later in the week.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 0.5% to 21,088.32 in early trading, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 inched down nearly 0.1% to 6,652.20. South Korea’s Kospi stood virtually unchanged but a tad lower at 2,121.24.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.1% to 28,214.56, while the Shanghai Composite inched up less than 0.1% at  2,982.65.

On Wall Street, discouraging economic data and cautionary remarks from the head of the Federal Reserve weighed on the market.

The sell-off marked the third straight loss for the market and the biggest drop this month for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index, which hit an all-time high only last week.

In an early afternoon speech, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell noted that the economic outlook has become cloudier since early May amid uncertainty over trade and global growth.

Earlier Tuesday, reports showed a decline in consumer confidence and more weakness in the housing market.

The S&P 500 index fell 27.97 points, or 1%, to 2,917.38.

The Dow dropped 179.32 points, or 0.7%, to 26,548.22. The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, slid 120.98 points, or 1.5%, to 7,884.72.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller company stocks gave up 9.05 points, or 0.6%, to 1,521.04.

Trade policy remains the biggest source of uncertainty looming over the market. Investors are worried about the trade dispute between the U.S. and China and its potential impact on global economic growth and corporate profits.

Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will meet this week at the G-20. The world’s two largest economies spent much of the current quarter escalating their trade war and giving global markets jitters over prospects for economic growth.

“To a large extent, any further deterioration in trade relations is expected to guide expectations here so the focus remains up ahead with the G-20,” said Jingyi Pan, market strategist at IG in Singapore.

ENERGY:

Benchmark crude oil rose $1.05 to $58.88 a barrel. It fell 7 cents to settle at $57.83 a barrel Tuesday. Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 73 cents to $65.01 a barrel.

CURRENCIES:

The dollar rose slightly to 107.46 Japanese yen from 107.03 yen on Tuesday. The euro weakened to $1.1357 from $1.1381. /gsg

source: business.inquirer.net