Asia Stocks Set for Muted Open; Dollar Edges Up: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) -- Asia stocks were set for a muted open as investors mulled comments from President Donald Trump that the U.S. was “not ready” to reach a trade deal with China. The dollar edged higher.

Futures on Japanese and Australian equities were steady, with those in Hong Kong modestly lower. U.S. contracts were little changed in early Asian trading with markets shut Monday for Memorial Day. Earlier, European stocks advanced with bonds after EU elections. A holiday in the U.K. kept volumes low.

Investors are looking for signs of stability after trade frictions and economic data put global stocks on course for their first monthly decline of 2019. Trump gave investors mixed messages to parse while on a visit to Tokyo, saying the U.S. is making “great progress” in trade negotiations with Japan, while at the same time adding that American tariffs on Chinese goods “could go up very, very substantially, very easily.”

Elsewhere, Italian bonds fell as the country was said to face a $4 billion fine over failure to rein in debt. Brent crude rebounded from last week’s rout as the outlook for supply disruptions from Iran and Libya help offset concerns that a U.S.-China trade war will sap demand.

Here are some key events coming up:

• Executives from Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Twitter are scheduled to speak before Canadian Parliament’s International Grand Committee on big data, fake news and privacy Tuesday.
• China provides the first peek at its May economic performance on Friday, with economists anticipating the official manufacturing PMI will tick down to 49.9 — a contraction — amid the worsening trade war with the U.S.
• U.S. first-quarter revised GDP data is due Thursday.

And these are the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• Futures on the Nikkei 225 were little changed in Singapore.
• Contracts on Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index were flat.
• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index futures fell 0.3% earlier.
• S&P 500 Index futures rose 0.1% as of 7:49 a.m. in Tokyo.

Currencies

• The yen traded at 109.52 per dollar.
• The offshore yuan was at 6.9068 per dollar.
• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index advanced 0.1%.
• The euro held at $1.1194.
• The British pound was at $1.2682 after falling 0.3%.

Bonds

• Australia’s 10-year bond yield held at 1.55%.
• Italy’s 10-year yield gained 12 basis points to 2.677%, the highest in a week on the biggest climb in more than six weeks.

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 0.8% to $59.12 a barrel. Brent crude surged 2.1% to $70.11 a barrel Monday.
• Gold fell 0.3% to $1,285.17 an ounce.

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