HONG KONG, Feb 1, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Asian markets mostly rose Friday, with
investors treading carefully as China-US trade talks ended with no deal but
with both sides sounding notes of optimism and setting up more high-level
meetings later this month.
After the much-anticipated gathering, Donald Trump hailed “tremendous
progress” between the world’s top two economies but warned the “hard
deadline” of March 1 remained in place, after which US tariffs on billions of
dollars of Chinese goods will be imposed.
For its part, Beijing said they held “candid, specific and fruitful”
discussions and had agreed to increase cooperation on intellectual property –
– a major source of White House anger with China — and boost imports of US
goods.
Trump’s top two economic officials will visit Beijing later this month,
after which he said he will meet his counterpart Xi Jinping to hammer out the
final deal.
While the negotiations ended with no agreement, Jeffrey Halley, senior
market analyst at OANDA, said: “For the markets, which are clearly in ‘risk-
on’ mood, it was a case of no news is good news.”
However, an early rally across the region petered out to leave markets
mixed.
Tokyo ended the morning 0.1 percent higher, while Hong Kong was marginally
lower and Shanghai added 0.4 percent.
Sydney was also flat, Singapore slipped 0.2 percent and Seoul added 0.2
percent, though Manila surged more than one percent.
“The statement certainly signals progress, but at best limited progress on
the core long-term structural issues that separate the two sides,” Eswar
Prasad, a trade policy professor at Cornell University, told Bloomberg News.
“The statement ends with a not-so-veiled threat that China will need to
offer more substantive concessions to enable a deal that would take further
tariffs off the table.”
The tepid movement in markets also comes after an impressive month that
saw Hong Kong pile on more than eight percent and Tokyo more than four
percent, a much-needed bounce after December’s hammering.
Next on the agenda is the release of US jobs data later Friday, which
comes days after the Federal Reserve fuelled a rally by signalling a slowdown
in its pace of interest rate hikes this year.
The non-farm payrolls figures will be closely watched for an idea about
the state of the world’s number-one economy, with the Fed having warned of a
global slowdown.
– Key figures around 0230 GMT –
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.1 percent at 20,797.24 (break)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng: FLAT at 27,942.21
Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.4 percent at 2,595.33
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3096 from $1.3108 at 2200 GMT
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1439 from $1.1447
Dollar/yen: DOWN at 108.78 yen from 108.82
Oil – West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 21 cents at $54.00 per barrel
Oil – Brent Crude: UP 41 cents at $62.25 per barrel
New York – Dow: DOWN 0.1 percent at 24,999.67 (close)
London – FTSE 100: UP 0.4 percent at 6,968.85 (close)