London (AFP) – Chinese stocks rose on Wednesday, as did the dollar, as investors eyed weekend US-China trade talks and an imminent Federal Reserve interest-rate decision. Wall Street also opened higher but was trading mixed in midday trading. The Dow climbed 0.5 percent at New York’s open, while the broad-based S&P 500 was flat and the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.4 percent. Almost all Asian markets closed higher, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng up 0.1 percent and Shanghai up 0.8 percent.
Investors gave a positive, if muted, response to news of US-China trade talks. But Europe’s main indices finished lower amid caution as to what might come out of the meeting of top US and Chinese officials. “No one truly knows where the US-China trade drama is headed,” said Fawad Razaqzada, analyst at Forex.com and City Index. “What’s certain is that equity traders have priced in some sort of deal — however ambiguous,” he added. Pakistan’s stock market closed down three percent after missile strikes from India, while New Delhi’s Sensex reversed early losses to finish up 0.13 percent. The two countries exchanged artillery fire across their contested border.
The dollar rose modestly on news of the US-China talks and the expectation that the Fed would later Wednesday hold interest rates steady. The Fed was making its first policy decision since US President Donald Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs on trading partners and ramped up those on China to 145 percent. Beijing has retaliated with 125-percent levies on US imports. “It seems the market is comfortable enough waiting for the next Fed rate cut in July,” and awaiting “hard data” to see how far the central bank might go then, ING Think analyst Chris Turner said.
Among company shares, Disney soared more than 10 percent after it said quarterly sales were up seven percent, partly on picking up 1.4 million subscribers to its Disney+ streaming service — after analysts had widely expected a decline. Shares in Alphabet plunged more than five percent following reports that Google’s search engine traffic was down due to AI alternatives such as ChatGPT or Perplexity. The US entertainment giant also announced plans to open a theme park in the United Arab Emirates.
In Europe, Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, behind the blockbuster weight-loss treatments Ozempic and Wegovy, rose 1.3 percent after posting higher quarterly profit and sales. But the company cut its annual sales forecast, citing a decline in US market share. Other European pharmaceutical stocks struggled after losses in the United States the previous day. This followed the appointment of oncologist Vinay Prasad to a top post at the US Food and Drug Administration. Prasad has been an outspoken critic of the agency’s prior approach to Covid-19 vaccines and other key decisions.
In London, drugmaker AstraZeneca saw its shares drop 2.2 percent, while GSK fell 5.2 percent. In Paris, Sanofi’s shares dropped 4.7 percent. Shares in German automaker BMW rose 1.7 percent after it said it expected to largely ride out the impact of US tariffs over the coming year. In a statement, BMW said it expected “some of the tariff increases to be temporary, with reductions from July 2025.”
Key figures at around 1530 GMT:
– New York – Dow: UP 0.5 percent at 41,036.96 points
– New York – S&P 500: FLAT at 5,608.70
– New York – Nasdaq: DOWN 0.4 percent at 17,618.63
– London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 8,559.33 (close)
– Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.9 percent at 7,626.84 (close)
– Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.6 percent at 23,115.96 (close)
– Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.1 percent at 36,779.66 (close)
– Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.1 percent at 22,691.88 (close)
– Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.8 percent at 3,342.67 (close)
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1349 from $1.1373 on Tuesday
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3343 from $1.3370
Dollar/yen: UP at 143.36 yen from 142.44 yen
Euro/pound: UP at 85.05 pence from 85.04 pence
Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.9 percent at $61.60 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.7 percent at $58.67 per barrel.
© 2024 AFP
