Stocks cheered by trade deal hopes but caution prevails

Asian stocks jumped on Friday, lifted by White House comments that suggested the possibility of an imminent trade deal between Washington and Beijing, which revived hopes that their tariff war may be nearing an end.

Asian Stocks

• The buoyant mood looked set to extend to Europe, where pan-region Euro Stoxx 50 futures rose 0.57% to 3,705.
• German DAX futures climbed 0.53% to 13,253.5.
• FTSE futures inched up 0.36% to 7,322.
• U.S. S&P 500 e-mini stock futures also rose, adding 0.35% to 3,107.8 after the S&P 500 index finished at a record closing high on Thursday.
• MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan up 0.57%.
• Japan’s Nikkei added 0.7% and Australian shares gained 0.87%.
• Chinese blue-chip shares, in contrast, struggled to hold gains after rising as much as 0.23% earlier in the day.
• The CSI300 index was last down 0.45%.
•  Hang Seng index gained 0.15%, but was on track for its worst weekly performance in nearly four months.
• In contrast to the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.01% 27,781.96 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.04% to 8,479.02.

Currency Markets

• The safe-haven yen weakened, with the dollar rising 0.17% to buy 108.57 yen.
• The euro was barely changed at $1.1023 and the dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals was off just 0.02% at 98.143.

Bonds

• Higher U.S. Treasury yields also illustrated the risk-on tone in the Asian session, with the 10-year yield rising to 1.848% from a US close of 1.815% on Thursday.

Commodities

• In commodity markets, U.S. crude prices rebounded after sliding Thursday on rising U.S. crude inventories. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was 0.44% higher at $57.02 a barrel.
• Global benchmark Brent crude added 0.37% to $62.51 per barrel.
• Gold retreated from gains that had been prompted by trade uncertainty.
• Spot gold was last trading at $1,463.90 per ounce, down 0.48%.

Source: Investing.com