London (AFP) – Wall Street’s major indices pushed higher on Tuesday, a day after striking record highs on optimism over a reduction in US-China trade tensions. “Record highs yesterday for the major indices weren’t enough,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare. “The market is coming back for more this morning, heartened by recent earnings reports, visions of a rate cut dancing in its head, merger and acquisition activity, positive sentiment surrounding President Trump’s trip to Asia, and plain old momentum,” he added.
The Dow and the Nasdaq Composite both rose around 0.6 percent at the opening bell, while the S&P 500 gained 0.3 percent. Major European indices were narrowly mixed while Asian stock markets mostly fell. Investors have overwhelmingly priced in a quarter percentage point interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve following its Wednesday meeting.
Donald Trump is due to meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping Thursday in South Korea — and rosy comments by the US president have fueled optimism that the world’s two largest economies, China and the United States, can strike a deal to ease their trade war. Those hopes spurred stocks to record highs on Wall Street, where investors are preparing for earnings reports from tech giants including Microsoft and Meta this week.
Trump on Tuesday met Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in Tokyo, where the country’s first woman PM lavished Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index of leading stocks finished the day down 0.6 percent after surging above 50,000 points Monday for the first time thanks to Takaichi’s pro-stimulus stance.
Ahead of Tuesday’s US open, online retailing giant Amazon said it would reduce staff by 14,000 posts as part of efforts to streamline operations, while boosting its AI endeavors. Amazon shares climbed 0.3 percent. Paramount Skydance will meanwhile cut about 1,000 positions on Wednesday, a source close to the matter told AFP, less than three months after the merger of the two media giants. Its shares fell two percent as trading got underway.
Markets also continued to follow earnings. Shares in package delivery giant UPS, which is in the midst of a strategic restructuring drive, jumped 10.4 percent after it beat analyst expectations with its third quarter earnings. Shares in HSBC rose in London and Hong Kong as the global bank’s underlying profits beat expectations. Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis shed three percent after its latest earnings showed the group under pressure from US generic drugs. In Paris, shares in French IT Capgemini rallied 3.3 percent on rising third-quarter sales.
– Key figures at around 1330 GMT –
New York – Dow: UP 0.6 percent at 47,842.64 points
New York – S&P 500: UP 0.3 percent at 6,896.21
New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.6 percent at 23,771.33
London – FTSE 100: UP 0.5 percent at 9,704.35
Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.1 percent at 8,227.92
Frankfurt – DAX: UP less than 0.1 percent at 24,329.72
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.6 percent at 50,219.18 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.3 percent at 26,346.14 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.2 percent at 3,988.22 (close)
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1629 from $1.1646 on Monday
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3263 from $1.3333
Dollar/yen: DOWN at 152.30 yen from 152.90 yen
Euro/pound: UP at 87.68 from 87.35 pence
Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.1 percent at $64.21 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.1 percent at $60.63 per barrel
burs-rl/gv
© 2024 AFP
