Bloomberg.com — Finance ministers and central bankers from the top 20 economies of the world on Sunday ended two days of talks in Buenos Aires. They began against a backdrop of concern with a burgeoning trade war that had risked spilling into currency markets. The meeting kicked off under the shadow of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to slap more levies on Chinese imports, accuse the EU and China of manipulating their currencies, and criticizing the Fed of raising interest rates.

Here are some of the highlights from the two-day summit.

Fed Independence
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin addressed Trump’s comments on the eve of the summit that a stronger dollar and rising U.S. interest rates were undermining America’s competitive advantage.

Speaking to reporters Saturday morning before the start of talks, Mnuchin said Trump fully supports Federal Reserve independence and isn’t trying to interfere in foreign-exchange markets.

“This is not in any way the president trying to intervene in the currency markets whatsoever,” said Mnuchin, who also reiterated the traditional strong-dollar policy mantra.

IMF chief Cristine Lagarde weighed in, saying central bank “independence is key”.

“Central bank independence is absolutely sacrosanct in my view and there is ample evidence that independent central banks tend to be more successful,” South African Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Daniel Mminele.

Global Growth Threatened

Global growth continues strong but is less synchronized and faces more risk than before, including that from trade tensions, the G-20 said in its final statement. Emerging markets particularly faced risks of capital outflows and market volatility.

“The impact of protectionist measures already implemented has been — that’s lucky– so far very limited. But the risk of escalation is there,” said European Union Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici.

Law of the Jungle
France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the U.S. needed to “return to reason” and likened “its unilateral trade actions to “the law of the jungle.”

The U.S. must rescind its tariffs on steel and aluminum imports before European countries discuss overhauling aspects of global trade, he said.
“We refuse to negotiate with a gun to the head.”

Diplomatic Wordsmiths
Despite some of the fiery rhetoric surrounding the summit, drafting the final statement
went smoother than it has in a long time, according to several people who participated. The host, Argentina, said consensus was easily reached on Saturday, a day ahead of schedule. Mnuchin himself said it was his easiest communique.

Cryptocurrencies
Policy makers are still working towards a unified strategy to oversee digital currencies, which have soared in popularity and pose a challenge to regulators who are concerned about their volatility and potential use in money laundering and tax evasion.

The G-20 statement reiterated cryptos lack many of the attributes of sovereign currencies, but delegates provided limited details on any specific and coordinated steps member nations might take to regulate the assets.

Bloomberg.com — European stocks fell and U.S. equity futures pointed to a weaker open as investors digested warnings from the world’s financial leaders about the impact of protectionism on growth. The yen rose and Japanese government bonds slid on speculation about the Bank of Japan’s stimulus.

Travel companies were the biggest losers in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index after Ryanair posted a 20 percent decline in first quarter profit, while futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were in the red as the finance chiefs from the Group of 20 nations on Sunday warned trade tensions threaten expansion as leading economies fall out of sync. The dollar and Treasuries were steady. Japanese government bonds plunged and the yen rose on reports of possible changes to the nation’s ultra-loose monetary policy, which spurred the central bank to offer to buy an unlimited amount of bonds at a fixed-rate operation. European bonds also fell.

The world’s finance chiefs said global growth remains robust and many emerging-market countries are better prepared to face crises, but risks to the world economy have increased. Also rattling investors, Trump took issue with the yuan’s six-week slide to the lowest level in more than year, raising concerns among investors that the U.S.-China trade war is now spilling over into currency markets. The ratcheting up of rhetoric is offsetting a mixed earnings season, which continues on Monday with Alphabet the main focus.

“The current U.S. administration has a clear preference for lower U.S. dollar rates and a weaker currency,” Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. strategists led by Daniel Been said in a note to clients Monday. “This will keep markets wary of further strength in the U.S. dollar; especially given the scale of the recent rally and the large long position already held by the market.”

Elsewhere, traded near $68 a barrel amid concern the escalating trade rows will undercut energy demand, undermining reassurances from Saudi Arabia that it won’t flood global crude markets. Emerging-market currencies edged higher.

Investing.com – Retail sales in Canada in May 2018 grew by 2% compared to the previous month, when their decrease was 0.9%, according to the Statistics Department of the country.

The dynamics of the indicator was much better than the forecasts of analysts, who expected the increase of the index by only 1%.

Sales in May amounted to 50.756 billion Canadian dollars.

In annual terms, retail sales in Canada rose by 3.6% in the month before last.

The dynamics of retail sales without cars was also better than forecasts. In May, sales increased by 1.4% and amounted to 37 billion Canadian dollars. At the same time, experts predicted that the figure will rise by only 0.5%. In the annual ratio, sales without auto increased by 4.1%.

The Statistics also published today inflation data for June

Last month, consumer prices (CPI) in Canada increased by 2.5% in June from June 2017, after rising by 2.2% in May. Analysts had expected inflation to accelerate only to 2.3%.

As to the previous month, prices increased by 0.1%.

Prices for foodstuffs for June increased by 0.7% and by 1.4% in annual terms. Housing prices rose 0.1% and 2%, respectively. Transport costs rose 0.6% in the month and 6.6% in annual terms. Prices for clothing and footwear for the past month dropped by 1.3% and rose by 1.8% year on year. Gasoline fell 2.3% in a month, while gasoline prices jumped 24.6% over the year.

Bloomberg.com — Stocks in Asia reversed losses and the yuan recovered its drop amid signs of intervention from Chinese authorities looking to stem the currency’s weakness.

Shares in China and Hong Kong climbed and the offshore yuan pared the slide that pushed it to its weakest in more than a year against the greenback, as traders said a major Chinese bank was seen making large offers to sell dollars. Equities also climbed in India and Australia, while Japan shares slipped. U.S. and U.K. stock-index futures pointed to a muted start to trading in London and New York. The dollar slipped and Treasury yields ticked higher.

Chinese assets are in focus after the central bank Friday weakened its daily reference rate for the currency by the most in two years. The yuan initially fell beyond 6.8 per dollar, then rallied amid speculation of intervention. The suggestion that China’s policy makers are comfortable with depreciation has stoked a debate about the implications for global markets, with the example of the turmoil of 2015 looming in investor memories.

Earlier, the dollar fell, triggered by President Donald Trump saying he wasn’t thrilled at the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates, raising the specter of political interference with the U.S. central bank. Meantime, earnings season is in full swing, with a mixed picture so far doing enough to propel U.S. equities back toward the all-time high reached in January.

Elsewhere, copper gained after Thursday’s slide. West Texas Intermediate crude rose above $69 a barrel.