global growth
Asia remains resilient amid market headwinds — Maybank Kim Eng
KUALA LUMPUR (June 21): Asia’s underlying fundamentals remain solid with resilient growth prospects despite headwinds from US-China trade friction and rising US interest rates, according to Maybank Kim Eng. The United States and China are expected to continue driving global growth and investment, which will benefit emerging Asia, the investment banking arm of Maybank Group said at its Invest Asia UK conference in London today, noting rising demand from the world’s two largest economies had supported Asia’s export recovery last year. Asia’s private investment is experiencing a revival this yearRead More
Easy as A, B, Xi: China gives economic lessons to North Korea
BEIJING, June 21 —Chinese President Xi Jinping has coached his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un on high-stakes diplomacy. Now he seems poised to give the young autocrat another lesson: how to reform a state-controlled economy while keeping an…
Washington's 'capricious' trade actions will hurt US workers, China warns
BEIJING, June 21 — China’s commerce ministry on Thursday accused the United States of being “capricious” over bilateral trade issues, and warned that the interests of US workers and farmers ultimately will be hurt by Washington’s penchant…
Ringgit breaches 4.00 against US dollar
KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 — The ringgit closed lower today at 4.0020/0050 against the US dollar, the first time it has breached the 4.0 level in more than five months. Dealers said this was in tandem with other emerging Asian currencies,…
Ringgit breaches the 4.0 level against US dollar
KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit closed lower today at 4.0020/0050 against the US dollar, the first time it breached the 4.0 level in more than five months.
Dealers said this was in tandem with other emerging Asian currencies, as sentiment was dampened by the weakness of equity markets.
The last time the local currency closed at the 4.0 level was on Jan 10, at 4.0020/0070 to the greenback.
At Monday's close, the ringgit was traded at 3.9960/9990.
A dealer said emerging-market currencies were feeling the heat from the latest wave of fear on escalating trade war between the US and China that had hit equity markets and boosted the appeal of safe-haven assets.
Meanwhile, Oanda Head of Trading in Asia-Pacific Stephen Innes said the regional sentiment was an enormous risk-off, and the local stock market toppled on global growth concerns.
He said despite the Chinese yuan also hitting a five-month low at 6.48 against the greenback, the ringgit only weakened slightly above 4.00 against the US dollar despite uncertainty over the fiscal deficit.
“The ringgit is better insulated from external trade shocks than its regional peers. But it should continue to trade with a negative bias as regional sentiment continues to wane.
“The local currency has weakened dramatically on the post-election outflows, so it is not suffering from the unwinding of short dollar risk as some of its regional peers,” he told Bernama.
Innes added this partially explained the reasons that the ringgit held up relatively well today, considering all the regional negatives.
The local unit, however, was traded higher against a basket of currencies.
It advanced against the Singapore dollar to 2.9476/9507 from Monday's close of 2.9580/9611 and increased against the British pound to 5.2734/2778 versus 5.2935/2979.
The local unit improved against the euro to 4.6223/6274 from 4.6342/6384 on Monday, but fell vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.6431/6469 from 3.6147/6177 yesterday. — Bernama
Global stocks, oil suffer as US-China trade spat heats up
LONDON, June 18 — Global stocks slid today and US oil prices slumped after US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing responded with similar measures in an escalating trade dispute. Fears the spat between the…
Global stocks pressured by US, China tariff announcements
NEW YORK: Revived trade war fears weighed on US and European bourses Friday following tit-for-tat tariff announcements by the United States and China.
US President Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on tens of billions in Chinese imports, sparking immediate retaliation from Beijing and bringing the world's two largest economies to the brink of an all-out trade war long feared by markets and industry.
“There remains a substantial risk of escalation and a more prolonged dispute that lasts through the summer and into the fall,” said a note from Eurasia Group.
Wall Street stocks opened the session solidly lower following Trump's decision before recovering some of the losses. The Nasdaq still ended down 0.2%, retreating from Thursday's record. The Dow and S&P 500 also ended lower.
Trump's action follows weeks of back and forth between Washington and Beijing that have veered in tone from conciliatory to hostile and left observers unsure of the likelihood of a trade war that could bruise global growth.
“In the on again-off again discussion about the menacing specter of a trade war, things are on again this morning,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.
“It's hard to know if this is just a big game of political chicken that will get resolved without anyone getting permanently hurt or if it is the start of something bigger that will create some real economic damage,” he added.
Earlier, European stocks had also fallen, with Paris shedding 0.5% and Frankfurt 0.7%.
The euro rallied somewhat after falling sharply on Thursday's European Central Bank announcement that it would keep interest rates down for longer-than-expected.
Oil prices, meanwhile, fell sharply a week before a crunch meeting of OPEC and its allies who are to decide whether to extend a production cut agreement that has been in force since late 2016.
“Reality seems to be setting in a bit regarding OPEC's looming production increase,” said a note from BMO Capital Markets. “The market has already begun pricing it in perhaps and therefore we saw a healthy sell-off today.”
Analysts also attributed the oil market's pullback in part to worries over a trade war.
Key figures around 2100 GMT
New York – Dow Jones: DOWN 0.3% at 25,090.48 (close)
New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.1% at 2,779.42 (close)
New York – Nasdaq: DOWN 0.2% at 7,746.38 (close)
London – FTSE 100: DOWN 1.7% at 7,633.91 (close)
Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.5% at 5,501.88 (close)
Frankfurt – DAX 30: DOWN 0.7% at 13,010.55 (close)
EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.4% at 3,511.50 (close)
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.5% at 22,851.75 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng: DOWN 0.4% at 30,309.49 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.7% at 3,021.90 (close)
Euro/dollar: UP at US$1.1606 from US$1.1568 at 2100 GMT Thursday
Pound/dollar: UP at US$1.3281 from US$1.3262
Dollar/yen: UP at 110.68 yen from 110.63 yen
Oil – Brent Crude: DOWN US$2.50 at US$73.44 per barrel
Oil – West Texas Intermediate: DOWN US$1.83 at US$65.06 per barrel — AFP
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