Asia
After Monday’s strong gains for the Hong Kong stock market, the Hang Seng flagged today. It was a similar picture in China, where the CSI 300 and the Shanghai Composite Index dipped. Once again, the issue of trade tariffs has raised its head, with President Trump threatening more taxes on Chinese goods. The lack of a strong market reaction in Asia could suggest that such threats are losing their power to move asset prices. The real action will be at the G20 Summit this weekend, where Trump and China’s Xi Jinping will come face to face.
Renewed weakness in the Japanese yen against the dollar helped Japan’s indices post gains under 1%.
Europe
Equities in Europe took their cue from Asia’s mixed performance rather than the rebound on Wall Street. France and German exchanges were off modestly, while Italy’s FTSE MIB could not repeat yesterday’s performance.
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) brought back some drama to the FTSE 250, losing around 30% of its value after a profit warning. Ahead of Thursday’s results, the tour operator said that full-year profits would be more than £50 million short of previous estimates. The company also scrapped the 2018 dividend – while Thomas Cook is not one of the highest yielding of the FTSE 250 stocks, the move compounded the profit warning.
The FTSE 100 hovered between positive and negative moves on the day, but remained above 7,000 points.
In Brexit news, President Trump believes that Theresa May’s deal is not a good one for US-UK relations. The pound initially dipped to $1.27, but has since recovered to $1.28, similar to Monday’s levels.
North America
US stock markets bounced back strongly after the Thanksgiving break, with the Nasdaq powering ahead 2% on Friday’s close.
November consumer confidence is due today, while the second reading of GDP is expected on Wednesday. PCE data and Federal Reserve minutes are due on Thursday. In Canada, GDP data will be in view on Friday.
In terms of companies reporting, Salesforce (CRM) is one of the biggest by market cap, while Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) releases earnings before the stock market opens in Toronto.
:quality(80)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/morningstar/DJVWK4TWZBCJZJOMX425TEY2KQ.png)
:quality(80)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/morningstar/WDFTRL6URNGHXPS3HJKPTTEHHU.png)
