WORLD
US-China trade talks are to begin today in Beijing to avoid a trade war following the escalation of the differences between the world’s two largest economies, in recent months, with both sides threatening to impose reciprocal additional tariffs on each other’s products.
China would welcome a successful outcome from the negotiations – which do not include core interests on the part of China – with the U.S. The most likely outcome, though, is the continuance of the negotiations.
As the 12th of May approaches, which is the deadline given by Trump to the European major powers to fix the flaws of the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, White House officials say that it is totally unclear if the US President will choose not to withdraw from the pact, under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.
UN Secretary-General Guterres warned against pulling out of the international agreement unless there is a another, better, alternative. “If one day there is a better agreement to replace it it’s fine, but we should not scrap it unless we have a good alternative,” he said in an interview with BBC Radio 4.
MARKETS
US Dollar marginally lower after FED’s meeting. With the Federal Reserve meeting now out of the way, which held interest rates unchanged, the markets’ focus is shifting to the US/China trade negotiations and to U.S. jobs data due on Friday for further clues on the strength of the economy and inflation pressures.
The EURO trimmed its gains versus the dollar and euro zone government bond yields fell back on Thursday after the release of the official data which showed April inflation in the region unexpectedly slipping to 1.2 percent.
Sterling dropped against most major currencies on Thursday after the publication of yet another set of disappointing UK economic data. Service PMI data read at 52.8, which was well below the 53.5 expected by markets; Britain’s services sector struggled to recover in April from a sharp slowdown in March.
Against the euro, sterling weakened 0.3 percent to 88.25 pence.
Canadian CAD and Australian AUD dollars gained sharply, with the latter rising 0.4 percent to $0.7523 cents after data showing a better-than-expected jump in the country’s trade surplus for March.
Gold prices rise after Fed decision to leave interest rates unchanged.
Oil prices fell on Thursday, held down by increasing U.S. crude inventories and record weekly U.S. production that undermined efforts by OPEC to cut supplies, although potential new U.S. sanctions against Iran kept markets on the edge.
Sources: Reuters, Investing.com, CNN Money
PLEASE NOTE The information above is not investment advice.