Last week, US’s Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) crossed 27,000 for the first time reaching a record high of 27,359.16 on 15 July 2019. Unfortunately, the rally did not follow through and the US index slipped amidst less-than-lustrous corporate earnings and a lack of progress for the US-China trade deal. Over the last fortnight, DJIA inched up 1 percent higher closing at 27,222.97. As the trade war dragged on, China released its 2Q19 figures indicating that its economic growth has slowed to 6.2 percent. This was lower than the 6.4 percent expansion registered in the first quarter this year ..read more

After the last trade talks fell apart in May 2019, US President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping finally agreed to revive talks after speaking to each other at the G20 summit in Japan. Trump agreed to hold off from imposing the additional 25 percent tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods and ease certain restrictions on tech company Huawei. As a gesture of goodwill, China agreed to make unspecified new purchases of US agricultural products. The US-China trade ceasefire provided some much-needed relief and sent all three major US indices to close at record-high levels in a h ..read more

Asian markets turned bullish after reports surfaced that both President Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping had agreed to meet at the G20 summit in Japan at the end of June. Meanwhile, the FOMC meeting held this week ended on a dovish note. While the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged, Fed chair Powell signaled that the central bank is ready to cut rates if necessary. Investors are now hoping that a potential rate cut may come as early as July. Last fortnight, Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 4 percent to 26,753.17. The last two weeks have not been peaceful in Hong Kong ..read more

Trade tensions further intensified between China and the US after US President Donald Trump placed Huawei on an export blacklist, a move that restricts the Chinese telecoms giant from buying parts and components supplied by American firms without the US government approval. To retaliate against the US, China as the biggest exporter of rare earth issued veiled threats to curb the supplies of the materials to the US. Rare earth elements are a key component in smartphones, electric cars and even military equipment, any moves to squeeze the supply would have devastating impacts on manufacturers. E ..read more

Just when the markets were anticipating a deal to be reached between US and China, the trade negotiations unexpectedly turned sour. Early this month, US President Trump raised tariffs on US$200 billion worth of imported Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent. In retaliation, China also announced plans to impose taxes on US$60 billion of US imports with effect from 1 June. To make matters worse, the Trump administration on 16 May added Huawei Technologies to a trade blacklist, putting up restrictions to make it difficult for the Chinese phone vendor to do business with US companies. In the ..read more

Just when global investors thought that a deal would be sealed, US President Donald Trump claimed China “broke the deal” from commitments made during earlier negotiations. Fuelled by frustration over the pace of talks, Trump threatened to escalate tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese imports from 10 percent to 25 percent effective 10 May 2019 and would “soon” target the remaining Chinese imports with fresh tariffs. Trump’s latest tariff threat came as a shock, coming just days after officials on two sides had sounded positive on the talks, with markets broadly expecting a trade resolution to b ..read more

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) climbed to 26,656.39 on 23 April 2019 which is not too far away from the all-time high of 26,743.50 achieved in September 2018. Despite all the talks of an imminent recession, US companies continue to deliver decent results for the first quarter. Over the last two weeks, DJIA gained 1.2 percent finishing at 26,462.08 while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite reached record territories before giving up some gains. Nevertheless, the Chinese markets were quick to take profits as investors worried that the Chinese government may refocus on structural reform ..read more

US equity markets moved higher underpinned by the Federal Reserve meeting minutes which confirmed the central bank’s dovish stance without further rate hikes this year. However, before any concrete deal has been reached with China, the Trump administration declared a trade war on Europe threatening to impose new tariffs on US$11 billion of EU products from airplanes to agricultural products such as cheese and wine. Over the last two weeks, Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.7 percent finishing at 26,143.05. Meanwhile, China’s softening fiscal policies to stimulate the economy appeared to b ..read more

Wall Street stocks sold off sharply on 22 March 2019, with all three major US stock indexes posting their biggest one-day percentage declines since 3 January 2019. The latest sell-off was sparked off after the Federal Reserve abruptly abandoned projections for any interest rate hikes in the rest of 2019 amid signs of an economic slowdown. Instead of cheering to the news, investors feared that the Fed’s dovish turn was a result of an impending slowdown in the US economy. Investors sold off short-term treasuries and piled on long term government bonds which usually considered higher risk. This c ..read more