· U.S. stocks climbed on Monday, helped by gains in Apple, Microsoft and Merck & Co, as investors set aside worries about the U.S.-China trade war.
Sentiment on Wall Street got an additional boost after White House trade adviser Peter Navarro dismissed reports that the Trump administration was considering delisting Chinese companies from U.S. stock exchanges as “fake news.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 0.36% to end at 26,916.83 points, while the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.50% to 2,976.73.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 0.75% to 7,999.34.
For the month, the S&P 500 rose 1.7%, the Dow added 2.1% and the Nasdaq gained 0.5%.
For the third quarter, the S&P 500 and Dow moved up 1.2%, while the Nasdaq dipped 0.1%.
Wall Street’s main indexes are on course to end September with the weakest quarterly performance so far this year, rattled by a host of factors including an escalation in U.S.-China trade tensions, the inversion of an important part of the U.S. yield curve and political turmoil in Washington.
· Stocks in Asia mostly edged higher in Tuesday morning trade, with Australia’s central bank set to announce its rate decision.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.28% in early trade, with shares of Tokyo Electron jumping 1.53%. The Topix index also advanced 0.56%.
Elsewhere, South Korea’s Kospi traded just below the flatline as shares of chipmaker SK Hynix dipped 0.49%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.11% as most of the sectors traded higher.
The Reserve Bank of Australia is set to announce its interest rate decision at around 12:30 p.m. HK/SIN on Tuesday, with expectations that the central bank could cut interest rates.
· “We expect the RBA to cut the cash rate by 25 (basis points) to 0.75% today,” Rodrigo Catril, senior foreign exchange strategist at National Australia Bank, wrote in a morning note. “This reflects our view that an underperforming economy requires more policy support.”
Reference: CNBC, Reuters
Thai
Eng