Global Markets: Stocks, emerging market currencies rise on planned U.S.-China trade talks

By April Joyner

China said that a delegation led by its vice commerce minister would travel to the United States for talks on Aug. 21 and 22, raising hopes that Beijing and Washington may resolve the escalating tariff war that has roiled financial markets since early March.

The Chinese yuan recovered from its weakest level since January 2017, and the dollar pared losses from earlier in the day.

"The news of China coming back to the negotiating table is providing relief and you are starting to see markets stabilise a little bit," said Shawn Cruz, manager of trader strategy at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.

The Turkish lira built upon Wednesday's gains, when Qatar pledged to invest $15 billion in Turkey. Other emerging market currencies, such as Brazil's real and Mexico's peso, also rose.

The Turkish lira rose 2.7 percent to 5.80 per dollar.

On Thursday, Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak assured international investors on a conference call that the country would emerge stronger from its currency crisis and that its banks were healthy.

Metals prices climbed as well, though MSCI's index of emerging market stocks dipped after having edged up into positive territory earlier in the day.

MSCI's index of world stocks <.MIWD00000PUS> rose 0.7 percent. Emerging market stocks <.MSCIEF> dipped 0.2 percent a day after falling more than 20 percent from their January intraday high.

In U.S. markets, the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 428.96 points, or 1.7 percent, to 25,591.37, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 26.08 points, or 0.93 percent, to 2,844.45 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 45.51 points, or 0.59 percent, to 7,819.63.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index <.FTEU3> rose 0.44 percent.

The Shanghai Composite Index <.SSEC> closed down 0.6 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index <.HSI> ended 0.8 percent lower. Hopes that China and the United States could ease trade tensions helped Chinese stocks pare losses.

In currency markets, the dollar index <.DXY> fell 0.06 percent, while the euro was up 0.19 percent to $1.1365 after closing Wednesday at its lowest point since July 2017.

The Chinese yuan gained 1.1 percent to 6.87 per dollar.

Copper rose 1.54 percent to $5,890.50 a tonne, after having confirmed a bear market on Wednesday when it closed 20.9 percent below its recent high reached on June 7.

Graphic: Emerging market shares savaged by bears - https://reut.rs/2KPYGv7

Oil also recovered somewhat after Wednesday's slide, though a weakening outlook for crude demand kept prices in check. U.S. crude rose 0.65 percent to $65.43 per barrel and Brent was last at $71.35, up 0.83 percent on the day.

U.S. Treasury yields rose on the news of U.S.-China trade talks. Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 6/32 in price to yield 2.8732 percent, from 2.851 percent late on Wednesday.

(Reporting by April Joyner; additional reporting by Sinead Carew in New York, Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru and Marc Jones in London; Editing by Dan Grebler and Leslie Adler)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)