Asian shares stumbled on Friday amid rising doubts that a highly anticipated meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping this weekend could lead to an easing of trade tensions.
Asian Shares
- Chinese blue chips (CSI300) fell 0.49%.
- Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.59%.
- Australian shares (AXJO) were off 0.3%.
- U.S S&P 500 e-mini stock futures (ESc1).
- The S&P 500 (SPX) rose 0.38% and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.73%.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) eased 0.04%.
Currency Markets.
- The dollar was 0.19% lower against the safe-haven yen at 107.57.
- The euro was flat, buying $1.1368.
- The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was also virtually flat at 96.197 after hitting three-month lows earlier this week.
Commodity
In commodity markets, trade worries continued to weigh on oil.
- U.S. crude (CLc1) losing 0.57% to $59.09 a barrel and global benchmark.
- Brent crude (LCOc1) down 0.56% to $66.18 per barrel.
- Spot gold was last traded at $1,420.35 per ounce, up 0.79%.
Bonds
- Highlighting mixed market views on the outlook for the weekend’s Sino-U.S. talks, yields on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes (US10YT=RR) rose to 2.0123%, compared with a U.S. close of 2.005% on Thursday, despite the reversal in equities.
- The two-year yield (US2YT=RR) was flat at 1.7409%, close to recent lows, reflecting near certainty that the Federal Reserve will cut benchmark interest rates in July.
