S&P Futures Up, Global Stocks Mixed
May 27 2020 - 2:53AM
Dow Jones News
By Frances Yoon
S&P 500 futures rose, alongside some international stock
indexes, as investors weighed the impact of rising U.S.-China trade
tensions against signs that economic activity is gathering
steam.
In Wednesday afternoon trading in Hong Kong, E-mini S&P
futures were up 0.6%, suggesting U.S. markets could push higher
again on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed more than 500 points on
Tuesday, as trading resumed after the three-day holiday weekend.
Restaurant bookings and spending on hotels and airlines appear to
be picking up in the U.S., coinciding with a decline in the daily
number of new coronavirus infections.
Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.7% on Wednesday, while Australia's
S&P/ASX 200 and South Korea's Kospi Composite were little
changed. India's BSE Sensex gained 0.6%, while China's Shanghai
Composite drifted 0.2% lower.
Steve Englander, head of North America macro strategy and Group
of 10 currencies at Standard Chartered Bank, said investors were
buying back assets that they sold off at the height of the
pandemic. "There is some confidence in markets that the worst has
passed with the disease and that a worst-case scenario--where, for
example, we are locked up for six months--is now assigned a lower
probability," he said.
But financial markets are still fragile, said Daniel Gerard,
senior global multiasset strategist at State Street Global Markets,
with investors watching news on issues such as the pandemic,
including vaccine progress, and U.S.-China relations.
"It's hard enough in this pandemic to get trade going on because
of an uneven recovery," Mr. Gerard said. "If we add complications
of the trade war, it will delay a recovery."
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index traded 0.9% lower. The market is
coming off two days of gains that recouped some of the steep losses
registered on Friday, after China unveiled plans to impose a
national-security law on the city.
Mr. Gerard said the prospect of renewed unrest in Hong Kong
added to growth concerns for some heavyweight components of the
Hang Seng, such as financial stocks and developers.
On Tuesday, the head of China's military garrison in Hong Kong
said his soldiers would safeguard the country's national-security
interests in the city, reinforcing an aggressive push by the
Communist Party to tighten its grip on the former British
colony.
U.S. crude-oil prices fell 0.5% to $34.17 a barrel, after rising
for seven of the past eight sessions.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was little changed,
dropping 0.01 percentage point to 0.690%. Yields fall as prices
rise.
Write to Frances Yoon at frances.yoon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 27, 2020 02:38 ET (06:38 GMT)
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