Gold Silver Reports (GSR) – Japanese shares fluctuated, while South Korean equities drifted. Futures on the S&P 500 Index declined following three days of gains for the underlying cash index that were driven in part by comments from White House officials indicating talks were in the offing between the world’s top two economies. Chinese markets are shut for a holiday. Crude oil prices dropped and gold rose. Treasuries recovered from recent losses.
The new front in the “trade war” between the world’s two biggest economies caught traders by surprise as they prepared for the March U.S. employment report, which will feed into the outlook for Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes. While stocks have been quick to react to trade tensions in recent weeks, moves in other asset classes have been more muted as investors take a wait-and-see approach to the actual outcome of negotiations between the U.S. and China.
Asian equities were mixed, while U.S. stock futures slid and the yen rose after President Donald Trump ordered his administration to consider tariffs on an additional $100 billion worth of Chinese imports, dashing investor optimism that trade tensions could ease with negotiations on the horizon.
Read More: Nifty Shed Over 1% As U.S.-China Trade War Intensifies
“This is temporary, this is posturing, this is not going to last until the end of the year,” Caleb Silsby, a portfolio manager at Whittier Trust Co., told Bloomberg Television. “You want to take advantage of any dislocations presented by these headlines,” he said, noting that valuations on the S&P 500 are now looking better.
Stocks
✅ Japan’s Topix index added 0.1 percent as of 9:44 a.m. in Tokyo.
✅ South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.3 percent.
✅ Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 0.2 percent.
✅ Futures on the S&P 500 were down 1.2 percent with volume about five times the average for this time of day. The underlying gauge rose 0.7 percent Thursday.
