The Hang Seng Index reversed its downward trend in Hong Kong on Thursday (February 12th), weakening by around 0.9% to around 27,000 after a strong session earlier. This decline halted the momentum of the short term rally, as investors began to reduce risk in large cap stocks. Among the index's contributors, Tencent was a major drag, with its shares falling by around 2.3%, putting pressure on the technology sector, which has recently been a driving force behind market gains. Weakness in large cap companies like this typically quickly impacts sentiment due to their significant weighting in...
China cut benchmark lending rates for the first time since October on Tuesday, while major state banks lowered deposit rates as authorities work to ease monetary policy to help buffer the economy from the impact of the Sino-U.S. trade war. The widely expected rate cuts are aimed at stimulating consumption and loan growth as the world's No. 2 economy softens, while still protecting commercial lenders' shrinking profit margins. Still, the size of the rate reductions was mild and reflected the incremental pace of monetary easing in recent years and what analysts interpreted as some wariness...
Ministerial level trade talks between Japan and the U.S. are set to take place later this week– marking the third round of high-level talks between the nations, Japan's Kyodo News agency reported on Tuesday. Kyodo reported that Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's top trade negotiator and minister of economic revitalization, will fly to Washington by Friday to engage in a third round of high-level talks. Kyodo cited comments from a U.S. official. Separately, Akazawa said in a press conference on Tuesday that working level talks took place between Washington and Tokyo on Monday, and that high-level...
China on Monday accused the US of undermining the two countries' preliminary trade agreement after the US issued an industry warning against using Chinese chips that singled out Huawei, per CNBC. According to a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce, the US Commerce Department's advice is "discriminatory" and "market distorting," prompting Beijing to "demand" that the administration "correct its mistakes." China Slams U.S. Huawei Chip Ban as Threat to Trade TruceChina Indicators China has strongly criticized a U.S. directive targeting certain high-end Huawei chips, saying it...
President Donald Trump said that Ukraine and Russia would begin talks "immediately" on ending their war after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. "Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War," Trump said in a social-media post. "The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of." The US president said he had also briefed European leaders on his two-hour call...
U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tax-cut bill, which had been stalled for days by Republican infighting over spending cuts, won approval from a key congressional committee on Sunday in a rare victory for Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson. At an unusual Sunday night session, four hardline Republican conservatives on the House Budget Committee, who had blocked the legislation on Friday, allowed the bill to move forward as they pressed for deeper spending cuts in closed-door talks with Republican leaders and White House officials. "We've made progress this weekend ... but we didn't...