Stocks Rise on Trade Talk Hopes, Dollar Steadies: Markets Wrap

Bloomberg.com — Asian stocks are ending a bruising week on a positive note after an easing in trade tensions between China and the U.S and positive results from Walmart boosted American shares. The dollar steadied and Treasuries were little changed.

Equities from Sydney to Hong Kong advanced, though Chinese shares underperformed. Futures signaled a muted start for stocks in London and New York. Emerging market equities rose for the first time in eight sessions and commodities steadied. The Turkish lira pared some of its gains as U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Turkey would face more sanctions if the country didn’t release a detained American pastor.

The possibility of a breakthrough in the U.S.-China trade spat has helped shake off some of the elevated caution that’s infected markets and driven Asian equities toward their worst week since March. The trade war remains the wildcard for emerging Asian currency and bond markets, according to a Bloomberg survey of investors.

“I don’t think we’re quite out of the woods yet,” Marcus Miholich, a managing director at State Street Global Advisors Ltd., told Bloomberg TV in Sydney. “Investors have definitely taken note of these tensions and have reallocated into more defensive sectors and defensive names. Given we don’t seem to have the light at the end of the tunnel just yet, that will continue.”

Elsewhere, oil slipped, heading for the longest run of weekly losses in three years on the ongoing crisis in Turkey and after a surprise gain in U.S. crude stockpiles.