por admin » Jue Jun 07, 2018 7:53 am
U.S. Stocks Poised to Open Higher as Trade Fears Ease
U.S. futures point to an opening gain after the Dow surged to its highest close in nearly three months on Wednesday
Georgi Kantchev
Updated June 7, 2018 7:28 a.m. ET
By
Georgi Kantchev
U.S. stocks were set to open higher Thursday as investors bet the global economy will be able to shake off continuing tensions in international trade.
Futures pointed to an opening gain of 0.2% for the S&P 500 and 0.3% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Dow industrials surged to its highest close in nearly three months Wednesday.
The Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.2%, led by gains in Germany and France, following an upbeat session for Asian markets. The euro gained after a top European Central Bank official signaled Wednesday it will discuss ending its bond purchase program at a meeting next week.
Stock markets have rebounded in recent sessions after a turbulent first half of the year as investors bet that continuing trade tensions won’t be a significant drag on global growth.
“Markets have overreacted to trade headlines” in recent months, said David Lafferty, chief strategist at Natixis Investment Managers, which manages around $1 trillion. “They will cause blips in the market but won’t derail the global growth story.”
Traders will be looking for further clues on trade at this weekend’s meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized nations—which include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U. S.—after the Trump administration’s decision last week to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from fellow G-7 countries.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said Thursday that China and the U.S. achieved “positive and concrete progress in multiple areas” in trade talks over the weekend.
The “relative calm in equity markets certainly suggests that there isn’t much by the way of concern about the ongoing trade war shenanigans,” said Jim Reid, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, in a note to clients.
In Europe, the ECB’s chief economist indicated on Wednesday that the central bank could decide as soon as next week to wind down its €30 billion ($35 billion)-a-month bond-buying program. Peter Praet said the ECB was increasingly confident that inflation would soon rise toward the bank’s target of just below 2%—a target it has missed for years.
The comments surprised investors, many of whom hadn’t expected a decision on the future of ECB stimulus until July, spurring a rally in the euro and a rise in government bond yields.
“This was a clearly positive development for the euro: the single currency was able to shake off the last remnants of the Italy mini-crisis,” currency strategists at Commerzbank wrote in a note to clients.
Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Stock markets have rebounded in recent sessions after a turbulent first half of the year.
Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Stock markets have rebounded in recent sessions after a turbulent first half of the year. Photo: Richard Drew/Associated Press
The common currency was up 0.5% against the dollar at €1.1837. The WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of 16 currencies, was down 0.3%.
German bund yields rose to 0.506% while the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to 2.992% from 2.975%.
On Thursday, Turkey’s central bank raised its main lending rate as it tries to stabilize the lira, which has come under pressure in recent months. The one-week repo rate was raised to 17.75% from 16.5%. The lira jumped on the news, rising by 1.9% against the U.S. dollar.
In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.8% while Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average finished up 0.9%.
In commodities, Brent crude, the global benchmark, was recently up 0.4% while gold rose 0.1%.
Write to Georgi Kantchev