Daily Times

Asian markets advanced Tuesday, with Beijing’s planned stimulus measures pushing up Chinese shares as investors turn their attention to this week’s release of corporate earnings reports.

Tensions persist over a potential global trade war, however, with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker heading to Washington on Wednesday to meet with President Donald Trump and try to avert an escalation of tit-for-tat tariffs.

The US leader is already embroiled in a messy trade dispute with China and Europe, while negotiations with Canada and Mexico to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement have stalled.

Beijing signalled it would shift to a looser fiscal policy to shield the world’s second-largest economy from the worsening trade row with Washington, prompting Chinese shares, buffeted for months by the spat, to make gains.

Shanghai jumped 1.6 percent while Hong Kong advanced 1.4 percent. The gains were mirrored across Asia, with Tokyo and Seoul both rising 0.5 percent and Sydney adding 0.6 percent. Chinese policymakers have had to juggle competing priorities: transitioning the nation’s economy to an expected era of slower growth, while also cleansing the financial system of dodgy credit.

That balancing act has become even more tricky as China’s export engine braces for the impact of US tariffs on Chinese goods, imposed by Trump to punish Beijing for “unfair” trade practices.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stressed the government would accelerate plans to reduce taxes by more than 1.1 trillion yuan ($160 billion) and to issue 1.35 trillion yuan in local government special bonds for infrastructure.

Beijing was widely expected to ease up on its credit clampdown — a campaign that has also weighed on Chinese stocks — in light of the new Trump-era realities.

Earnings in focus

Focus has also shifted to a round of earnings reports expected this week from companies ranging from British pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline to Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors to US aerospace titan Boeing.

Tech firms Amazon and Facebook will also report their results later in the week.

In Europe, shares in French car giant PSA — owner of Peugeot — surged 9.5 percent on strong earnings.

Paris opened 0.4 percent higher while London gained 0.2 percent and Frankfurt advanced 0.3 percent.

Oil markets were offered a lift on Monday when Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani engaged in a round of furious sabre-rattling.

Trump’s tweet — all in capital letters, the digital equivalent of shouting — came after Rouhani warned the US leader on Sunday not to “play with the lion’s tail”, saying that conflict with Iran would trigger the “mother of all wars”.

Key figures

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 percent at 22,510.48 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng: UP 1.4 percent at 28,662.57 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: UP 1.6 percent at 2,905.56 (close)

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 7,674.17 (open)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1692 from $1.1694 at 2100 GMT

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3115 from $1.3102

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 111.18 yen from 111.35 yen

Oil – Brent Crude: UP eight cents at $73.14 per barrel

Oil – West Texas Intermediate: UP two cents at $67.91 per barrel

New York – Dow: DOWN 0.1 percent at 25,044.29 (close).

Published in Daily Times, July 25^th 2018.