ADVERTISEMENT

Stocks Shrug Off Trade Rancor as Busy Week Begins: Markets Wrap

Japanese and Hong Kong shares were little changed, while their South Korean counterparts edged higher.

Stocks Shrug Off Trade Rancor as Busy Week Begins: Markets Wrap
A man looks at an electronic stock board showing a chart of the Nikkei Stock Average outside a securities firm in Tokyo. (Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. equities shrugged off the weekend’s trade drama as investors started a hectic week during which three major central banks set interest rates, President Donald Trump meets North Korea’s leader and Brexit returns to the fore.

The S&P 500 Index rose Monday for the second straight session, but not without giving up some gains just before the close. The dollar climbed with Treasury yields, and Texas crude and gold both advanced.

Investors are steeling themselves for geopolitical noise as the week picks up, with Trump saying he feels “very good” about the summit with Kim Jong Un in Singapore. After that, traders will switch their focus to the views of the world’s biggest central banks. The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates, while European Central Bank officials are poised to hold formal talks on ending its bond-buying program. The Bank of Japan meets Friday, with no change to policy expected.

“Much more likely to be market-moving are the Fed meeting this Wednesday and the ECB meeting the following day,” Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer of Independent Advisor Alliance, said in an email. “The ECB meeting on Thursday is important because if they elect to begin tapering (e.g. like the Fed has) then the implications for the Euro could be important.”

Earlier, shares in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea showed modest advances while Chinese stocks underperformed. Australian markets were shut for a holiday. Meanwhile, Canada’s dollar fell in the wake of the G-7 meeting, which ended with deepening tensions over U.S. tariffs and a dispute between Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Argentine peso led decliners in emerging-market currencies.

In Europe, the mood was cautiously risk-on, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index rising the most in more than a week and core European bonds slipping. The euro strengthened and Italian bonds and stocks jumped after the country’s new finance minister confirmed his commitment to the common currency. The pound fell in what could be a key week for Theresa May’s Brexit strategy, and as data showed a slump in U.K. manufacturing.

Stocks Shrug Off Trade Rancor as Busy Week Begins: Markets Wrap

Oil pared losses as cracks in a pipeline threatened Nigerian exports and a schism deepened within OPEC over whether to allow more crude to flow onto global markets. Bitcoin traded near a two-month low following a hacking incident at South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinrail.

Terminal users can read more in Bloomberg’s Markets Live blog.

These are some key events to watch this week:

  • President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meet for an historic summit in Singapore Tuesday, which will be late Monday in New York
  • U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May faces votes that could derail her Brexit policy, also Tuesday
  • The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates Wednesday as the U.S. economy remains solid
  • The European Central Bank rates decision comes Thursday with a briefing from President Mario Draghi
  • The Bank of Japan June monetary policy decision and news conference is Friday
  • FIFA expects more than 3 billion viewers for the World Cup that begins this week in Russia

And these are the main moves in markets:

Stocks

  • The S&P 500 Index rose 0.3 percent as of 4 p.m. New York time.
  • The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 0.7 percent, the largest climb in more than a week.
  • The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index jumped 0.7 percent.
  • The MSCI Emerging Market Index gained 0.2 percent.

Currencies

  • The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index increased 0.3 percent, the biggest climb in more than a week.
  • The euro climbed 0.1 percent to $1.1784.
  • The British pound fell 0.2 percent to $1.3382.
  • The Japanese yen declined 0.4 percent to 110.04 per dollar.
  • The Canadian dollar decreased 0.4 percent to C$1.2986 per U.S. dollar.

Bonds

  • The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced less than one basis point to 2.95 percent.
  • Germany’s 10-year yield increased four basis points to 0.49 percent.
  • Britain’s 10-year yield climbed two basis points to 1.407 percent, the highest in almost three weeks.

Commodities

  • West Texas Intermediate crude increased 0.5 percent to $66.05 a barrel.
  • Gold gained 0.2 percent to $1,300.52 an ounce.

--With assistance from Cormac Mullen and Samuel Potter.

To contact the reporters on this story: Sarah Ponczek in New York at sponczek2@bloomberg.net;Janine Wolf in New York at jwolf71@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, Andrew Dunn

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.