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Al Etihad
29 minutes ago
- Al Etihad
Asian markets extend gains as China-US talks head into second day
10 June 2025 08:33 Hong Kong (AFP) Asian stocks squeezed out more gains Tuesday as the latest round of China-US trade talks moved into a second day, with one of Donald Trump's top advisers saying he expected "a big, strong handshake".There is optimism the negotiations -- which come after the US president spoke to Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping last week -- will bring some much-needed calm to markets and ease tensions between the economic advances in Asian equities built on Monday's rally and followed a broadly positive day on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 edged closer to the record high touched earlier in the week's meeting in London will look to smooth key issues on the agenda at the talks are expected to be exports of rare earth minerals used in a wide range of things including smartphones and electric vehicle batteries."In Geneva, we had agreed to lower tariffs on them, and they had agreed to release the magnets and rare earths that we need throughout the economy," Trump's top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, told CNBC on even though Beijing was releasing some supplies, "it was going a lot slower than some companies believed was optimal", he he said he expected "a big, strong handshake" at the end of the talks."Our expectation is that after the handshake, any export controls from the US will be eased, and the rare earths will be released in volume," Hassett also said the Trump administration might be willing to ease some recent curbs on tech president told reporters at the White House: "We are doing well with China. China's not easy."I'm only getting good reports."Tokyo led gains in Asian markets, with Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Wellington and Jakarta also well up."The bulls will layer into risk on any rhetoric that publicly keeps the two sides at the table," said Pepperstone's Chris Weston."And with the meeting spilling over to a second day, the idea of some sort of loose agreement is enough to underpin the grind higher in US equity and risk exposures more broadly."Investors are also awaiting key US inflation data this week, which could impact the Federal Reserve's monetary policy amid warnings Trump's tariffs will refuel inflation strengthening the argument to keep interest rates on it also faces pressure from the president to cut rates, with bank officials due to make a decision at their meeting next week. While recent jobs data has eased concerns about the US economy, analysts remain cautious. Stock Markets Continue full coverage
Gulf Today
17 hours ago
- Gulf Today
China's export growth slows last month as tariffs take toll
China's export growth slowed to a three-month low in May as US tariffs slammed shipments, while factory-gate deflation deepened to its worst level in two years, heaping pressure on the world's second-largest economy on both the domestic and external fronts. US President Donald Trump's global trade war and the swings in Sino-US trade ties have in the past two months sent Chinese exporters, along with their business partners across the Pacific, on a roller coaster ride and hobbled world growth. Underscoring the US tariff impact on shipments, customs data showed that China's exports to the US plunged 34.5 per cent year-on-year in May in value terms, the sharpest drop since February 2020, when the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic upended global trade. Total exports from the Asian economic giant expanded 4.8 per cent year-on-year in value terms last month, slowing from the 8.1 per cent jump in April and missing the 5.0 per cent growth expected in a Reuters poll, customs data showed on Monday, despite a lowering of US tariffs on Chinese goods which had taken effect in early April. 'It's likely that the May data continued to be weighed down by the peak tariff period,' said Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING. Song said there was still front-loading of shipments due to the tariff risks, while acceleration of sales to regions other than the United States helped to underpin China's exports. Imports dropped 3.4 per cent year-on-year, deepening from the 0.2 per cent decline in April and worse than the 0.9 per cent downturn expected in the Reuters poll. Exports had surged 12.4 per cent year-on-year and 8.1 per cent in March and April, respectively, as factories rushed shipments to the US and other overseas manufacturers to avoid Trump's hefty levies on China and the rest of the world. While exporters in China found some respite in May as Beijing and Washington agreed to suspend most of their levies for 90 days, tensions between the world's two largest economies remain high and negotiations are underway over issues ranging from China's rare earths controls to Taiwan. Trade representatives from China and the US are meeting in London on Monday to resume talks after a phone call between their top leaders on Thursday. China's imports from the US also lost further ground, dropping 18.1 per cent from a 13.8 per cent slide in April. Zichun Huang, economist at Capital Economics, expects the slowdown in exports growth to 'partially reverse this month, as it reflects the drop in US orders before the trade truce,' but cautions that shipments will be knocked again by year-end due to elevated tariff levels. China's exports of rare earths jumped sharply in May despite export restrictions on certain types of rare earth products causing plant closures across the global auto supply chain. The latest figures do not distinguish between the 17 rare earth elements and related products, some of which are not subject to restrictions. A clearer picture of the impact of the curbs on exports will only be available when more detailed data is released on June 20. China's May trade surplus came in at $103.22 billion, up from the $96.18 billion the previous month. Other data, also released on Monday, showed China's imports of crude oil, coal, and iron ore dropped last month, underlining the fragility of domestic demand at a time of rising external headwinds. Beijing in May rolled out a series of monetary stimulus measures, including cuts to benchmark lending rates and a 500 billion yuan low-cost loan programme, aimed at cushioning the trade war's blow to the economy. China's markets showed muted reaction to the data. The blue-chip CSI300 Index climbed 0.29 per cent and the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.43 per cent. Producer and consumer price data, released by the National Bureau of Statistics on the same day, showed that deflationary pressures worsened last month. The producer price index fell 3.3 per cent in May from a year earlier, after a 2.7 per cent decline in April and marked the deepest contraction in 22 months. Cooling factory activity also highlights the impact of US tariffs on the world's largest manufacturing hub, dampening faster services growth as suspense lingers over the outcome of US-China trade talks. Retail sales growth slowed last month as spending continued to lag due to job insecurity and stagnant new home prices. These headwinds were evident in China's car sales for May, which grew 13.9 per cent year-on-year, slowing from a 14.8 per cent increase the previous month, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed. Sluggish domestic demand and weak prices have weighed on China's economy, which has struggled to mount a robust post-pandemic recovery amid a prolonged property slump and has relied on exports to underpin growth. Reuters
Al Etihad
a day ago
- Al Etihad
Asian markets rally ahead of latest China-US trade talks
9 June 2025 08:45 Hong Kong (AFP)Stocks rallied on Monday on hopes that a fresh round of China-US trade talks later in the day will ease tensions between the economic superpowers, while investors were also cheered by forecast-topping US jobs gains extended a run-up across global markets in recent weeks as fears about Donald Trump's tariff blitz subside and countries make deals with eyes are on London, where top officials from China and the United States are due to meet for more negotiations aimed at preserving a fragile truce agreed last month that slashed eye-watering tit-for-tat talks come days after Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held their first publicly announced telephone talks since the US president returned to the White were helped by news that Beijing had on Saturday approved some applications for rare-earth exports, while plane giant Boeing will start sending commercial jets to China for the first time since that the two sides will make a breakthrough boosted Asian markets, with Hong Kong up more than one percent, while Tokyo, Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Manila also gains followed a strong lead from Wall Street, where all three main indexes closed more than one percent higher after figures showing the world's largest economy created a forecast-beating 139,000 jobs last the figures for the previous two months were revised down, the data indicated that the economy remained robust, and tempered worries sparked by Wednesday's report by payroll firm ADP showing a big miss on private will now turn to the Federal Reserve as it decides whether to lower interest rates, with many economists warning that Trump's tariffs could reignite inflation, hit supply chains and drag on consumer sentiment."The May minutes and recent comments by several (policy board) members... suggest the Fed is highly attentive to the risk that tariffs will lead to a persistent inflation shock," wrote analysts at Bank of America. "Those risks could come into focus for markets by the fall." Stock Markets Continue full coverage
