· The dollar was little changed against a basket of currencies on Monday as traders awaited U.S.-China trade talks later in the week for clues to the state of the prolonged trade war between Washington and Beijing, even as chances of a deal appeared low.
Investors’ overall appetite for risk was weak on Monday after a Bloomberg report said that Chinese officials were reluctant to agree to U.S. President Donald Trump’s broad trade deal.
Top-level U.S.-China trade talks are scheduled to resume next Thursday and Friday, when Chinese Vice Premier Liu He meets with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Washington.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of other currencies, was up 0.17% at 98.98.
The dollar retreated marginally from a week-high touched on the Japanese yen overnight to sit at 107.30 yen JPY=. It edged lower on the euro EUR= to steady around $1.0971 as the single currency slowly climbs from a 2-1/2 year low hit last week.
· President Donald Trump said on Monday he wanted to see the U.S. Federal Reserve enact a “substantial” cut in interest rates because of the lack of inflation in the United States.
“We’d like to a see an interest rate cut, a very substantial one,” Trump said. “We have no inflation. If anything it’s going below the number, so therefore we’re entitled to an interest rate cut. I hope the Fed does that.”
· Chinese officials are growing hesitant to pursue a broad trade deal with the US sought by President Donald Trump in negotiations set to begin this Thursday, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News.
Meeting with US visitors to Beijing in recent weeks, senior Chinese officials have reportedly narrowed the range of topics they’re willing to discuss, according to people familiar with the discussions.
· Vice Premier Liu He, who will lead the Chinese contingent in high-level talks that begin Thursday, told visiting dignitaries he would bring an offer to Washington that won’t include commitments on reforming Chinese industrial policy or government subsidies, which were the target of longstanding US complaints and one of Trump’s core demands, one of the sources said.
· The risk of a recession is rising, and the main threat to the economy is the Trump administration’s trade war, according to a survey released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics.
“The rise in protectionism, pervasive trade policy uncertainty, and slower global growth are considered key downside risks to U.S. economic activity,” said NABE survey chairman Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist, Oxford Economics.
A small majority of the Washington-based association of business economists also expects that the Federal Reserve will remain on hold through 2019, while 40% of the group saying they expect at least one more rate cut this year.
· U.S. President Donald Trump has called his new trade deal with Japan a “phenomenal” victory for U.S. farmers.
But don’t expect America’s Land O’Lakes butter to knock New Zealand’s Anchor or France’s President brands off store shelves in Japan, the world’s third largest economy.
Butter is one of several U.S. dairy products that will not get improved access to Japan’s 127 million consumers under the limited bilateral trade deal signed by Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sept. 25.
But there are gains that bring U.S. beef, pork and wine exports in line with TPP competitors from Australia, New Zealand and Canada, putting them on the same tariff schedule.
· The new U.S.-Japan trade deal will provide staged reduction of Japanese tariffs for more than $2 billion worth of U.S. beef and pork, matching access now granted to the 11 Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact countries, a text of the agreement shows.
· President Donald Trump on Monday launched a harsh attack on NATO ally Turkey, threatening to destroy its economy if Ankara takes a planned military strike in Syria too far, even though the U.S. leader himself has opened the door for a Turkish incursion.
Trump said he would “totally destroy and obliterate” Turkey’s economy if it took action in Syria that he considered “off limits” following his decision on Sunday to pull 50 American special forces troops from northeastern Syria.
The U.S. withdrawal will leave Kurdish-led forces in Syria that have long allied with Washington vulnerable to a planned incursion by the Turkish military, which brands them terrorists.
Trump’s stern words seemed to be aimed at placating critics who accused him of abandoning the Syrian Kurds by pulling out U.S. forces. The decision drew criticism from Democrats and a rare rebuke from some of Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
· President Donald Trump said on Monday he warned Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan of “big trouble” if any U.S. service members in the part of Syria that Turkey has threatened to invade get hurt.
· Japanese household spending rose 1.0% in August from a year earlier, government data showed on Tuesday, compared with a median market forecast for a 1.2% gain.
· Crowds clashed with police across Hong Kong in the fourth day of protests against an anti-mask law that the government claimed was needed to stop violence but critics say is a dangerous assault on civil rights.
Hong Kong authorities brought the first charges under a new anti-mask law earlier on Monday, as the city slowly recovered from a weekend of protests against the ban that turned violent, leaving a trail of destruction and shuttered metro stations.
The government insisted the prohibition – unveiled on Friday and brought into effect overnight using sweeping colonial-era powers – was needed to end four months of protests, but instead it has only inflamed tensions across the city.
· The Chinese military garrison in Hong Kong offered a rare public reaction in the face of taunts from protesters Sunday, as violence escalated across the city over the weekend.
Video from Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK shows a yellow flag raised from atop a People's Liberation Army (PLA) building in Kowloon Tong, in north Kowloon, warning protesters they could be prosecuted if they continued to approach the barracks. The flag appears to be similar to those used by police during protests.
· Oil prices ended the day little changed on Monday as U.S.-China trade talks loomed.
Brent crude rose 13 cents or 0.2% to $58.50 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled down 0.1% at $52.75 per barrel.
Reference: CNBC, Reuters, Bloomberg, The Guardian, CNN
Thai
Eng