Asian Stocks Talking Points:
- Stock markets were all lower if not by much
- Investors want to see whether Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi can break the long US-China trade impasse
- Foreign exchange participants held their breath
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Asia Pacific stock markets all drooped into the weekend as investors looked with trepidation at the forthcoming Group of 20 summit in Osaka at which Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet on Saturday.
CNBC reported that China is looking for a ‘balanced’ trade deal at the summit, with signs of a move toward agreement possibly averting the next round of tariffs planned by Washington on $300 billion of Chinese goods.
XI has already told a meeting of Brazil, Russia, China and India in Japan that developed market protectionism was already damaging the order of global trade.
On the data front Japan’s preliminary industrial production reading for May trounced expectations. It rose by 2.3% on the month, when the markets had been looking for a 0.7% rise. On the year production fell 1.8%, undeniably poor but not as bad as the 2.9% slide feared.
Still, with focus fixed on Trump and Xi that wasn’t enough to help the Nikkei. It had edged down by 0.5% in the middle of the Tokyo afternoon. Shanghai was off by 0.9% with the Hang Seng down 0.4%. Australia’s ASX 200 fell 0.3%
Foreign exchange trade was decidedly subdued in the run-up to the G20 with major pairs barely moving. The US Dollar remained steady overall but the Australian Dollar managed very modest gains against it.
EUR/USD has made consistent gains since mid-June as markets move to price in monetary easing from the Federal Reserve even though they well know that there’s very probably more of the same to come from the European Central Bank.
Still the pair shows heightened signs of both topping out and rising indecision and it will probably be instructive to see where June’s monthly close puts it. Bitcoin lost a bit more ground and is still trading with a $10,000 handle, having been as high as $13,700 this week.
Before things really get going in Osaka markets will be on watch for US Personal Consumption and Expenditure data due later in the global day.
ASIAN STOCKS, RESOURCES FOR TRADERS
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--- Written by David Cottle, DailyFX Research
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