GLOBAL NEWS-
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday he had a “productive working dinner” the previous night in Beijing, kicking off a day of talks aimed at resolving the bitter trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer were in the Chinese capital for the first face-to-face meetings between the two sides in weeks after missing an initial end-of-March goal for a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to sign a pact.“We had a very productive working dinner last night, and we are looking forward to meeting today,” Mnuchin said as he left his hotel to meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, who is due to visit Washington next week to continue the talks.Mnuchin did not elaborate and it was not immediately clear with whom he had dined on Thursday night.Trump imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports last year in a move to force China to change the way it does business with the rest of the world and to pry open more of China’s economy to U.S. companies.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates until at least the end of next year, according to economists in a Reuters poll who gave a 40 percent chance of at least one rate cut by end-2020.The Fed left its federal funds rate on hold last week as expected, but its “dot plot” projections shifted and now suggest no hikes in 2019 compared with two in December. A Reuters poll taken just two weeks ago predicted one hike this year.
Japan’s factory output expanded for the first time in four months in February, though the rebound was relatively weak and the overall outlook for the sector and businesses suggested a record postwar economic growth phase may be coming to an end. The rising pressure on the economy was further underlined by a soft outcome for retail sales, meaning Japan’s recovery is showing signs of falling prey to both slackening domestic and external demand.
Japan’s jobless rate fell in February while the availability of jobs held steady at a high level, government data showed on Friday, underscoring a tight labor market despite tepid wage gains and inflation.The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 2.3 percent last month, against economists’ median forecast for 2.5 percent, figures from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed.The jobs-to-applicants ratio stood at 1.63, unchanged from January and matching economists’ median estimate.
Asian shares rose on Friday, led by a surge in Chinese equities, on hopes that Washington and Beijing are making progress in trade talks, while global bond yields moved higher after a prolonged slide on worries about the economic outlook.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.5 percent while Japan’s Nikkei added 1 percent.The Shanghai Composite Index climbed more than 2 percent.The mood in the markets was brighter after U.S. officials said China has made proposals in trade talks with the United States on a range of issues that go further than it has before, including on forced technology transfer.
China’s two largest state-controlled banks warned bad loans could rise and interest margins would shrink, as they posted their weakest quarterly profit growth in more than two years.Top lender Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) reported flat net profit of 58.05 billion yuan ($8.63 billion) for the fourth quarter, the first time it has seen no growth in a quarter since the July-September 2016 quarter.And China Construction Bank Corp, the country’s second-largest lender, posted on Wednesday a 1 percent drop in net profit, its first quarterly decline since the October-December 2015 quarter.
China will sharply expand market access for foreign banks and securities and insurance companies, especially in its financial services sector, Premier Li Keqiang said on Thursday, as senior U.S. officials arrived in Beijing for more trade talks.China has pledged to further open its massive financial markets to foreign investors amid a trade war with the United States. Foreign businesses have long complained that liberalization has been too narrow and implementation spotty.“We are quickening the full opening of market access for foreign investors in banking, securities and insurance sectors,” Li said in a speech at the annual Boao forum held on China’s southern island of Hainan.The government also will work on more favourable policies for foreign investors to trade Chinese bonds, Li said.
South Korea’s February industrial production contracted sharply to a two-year low and missed forecasts by a large margin, government data showed on Friday.Industrial production dropped 2.6 percent from a month earlier, marking the biggest on-month fall since February 2017 and coming out much worse than a 0.9 percent decline tipped in a Reuters survey.Production of cars declined 3.2 percent from a month earlier, while that for transportation equipments and food items fell 8.0 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively.On a year-on-year basis, factory output dropped 2.7 percent last month.
Gold slipped on Friday and was headed for its worst month since August 2018 as the dollar and equities rose, while palladium bounced back after three straight sessions of sharp selloffs.Spot gold was down about 0.1 percent at $1,288.74 per ounce by 0507 GMT, after declining about 1.5 percent in the previous session, the most in over seven months.
Oil prices rose on Friday, pushed up by ongoing supply cuts led by producer club OPEC and U.S. sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, putting the crude markets on pace to post their biggest first quarter gain since 2009.U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were at $59.56 per barrel at 0211 GMT, up 26 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last settlement.WTI futures are set to rise for a fourth straight week and are set for a first quarter gain of 31 percent.Brent crude oil futures were up 30 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $68.12 per barrel. Brent futures are set to increase by 1.7 percent for the week and are set to climb by 27 percent for the first quarter.