Wednesday, 1 August 2018
Asian shares were higher on Wednesday, tracking the firmer Wall Street finish though reports that Washington plans to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods have put the focus back on volatile Sino-U.S. trade relations.
Global markets inched higher on Tuesday, helped by a Bloomberg report that the U.S. and China were seeking to resume trade talks to defuse the battle over import tariffs.However, later reports that the U.S. plans tariffs of 25 percent on $200 billion in Chinese imports have injected some uncertainty back into financial markets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.43 percent to 25,415.19, the S&P 500 gained 0.49 percent to 2,816.29 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.55 percent to 7,671.79.
Policy meetings of the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday and the Bank of England on Thursday will also keep some investors on the sidelines, although the U.S. central bank is expected to keep rates unchanged.
The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes was at 2.9617 percent, compared with its U.S. close of 2.964 percent on Tuesday.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, gained 0.1 percent to 94.564. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the Yuan reference rate at 6.8293 vs the previous day’s fix of 6.8165. This is the lowest level since May 31, 2017.
U.S. crude dipped 0.7 percent at $68.29 a barrel. Brent crude gave up 0.4 percent to $73.89 per barrel.
Source : Reuters
