MTS Help Center

· U.S. stocks will keep rising in 2020 but at a much more modest pace than this year, with plenty to potentially slow the ascent, according to a Reuters poll of strategists.

The benchmark S&P 500 index .SPX will finish 2020 at 3,260, roughly 4% above its close on Monday of 3,133.64, based on the median forecast of 52 strategists polled by Reuters in the last two weeks.

· A more stable global manufacturing industry and a pause in U.S.-China trade hostilities will usher the S&P 500 to record highs in 2020, Barclays told its clients Tuesday.

The bank’s chief U.S. equity strategist wrote that his ”‘mini-bubble melt-up scenario’ appears to be materializing” thanks to stronger industrial data and the fact that a recession doesn’t appear on the horizon for now.

“We are cautiously optimistic for a detente in the US-China Trade War, and monetary policy also remains accommodative around the globe,” Maneesh Deshpande wrote in a note.

Deshpande set his year-end 2020 S&P 500 forecast at 3,300, matching the median and just topping the average forecast of all Wall Street strategists tracked by CNBC.

· Asian shares rose on Wednesday and European stocks looked set for gains after U.S. President Donald Trump said negotiators were close to inking an initial trade deal, while expectations the Federal Reserve will keep rates low underpinned sentiment.

Trump's upbeat comments on trade stoked confidence in Asia with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS up 0.29%. Australian shares added 0.93% and Japan's Nikkei .N225 rose0.39%.

Trump said on Tuesday the United States and China are close to agreement on the first phase of a trade deal after top negotiators from the two countries spoke by telephone and agreed to keep working on remaining issues.

The positive mood pushed Wall Street indexes to fresh record closing highs on Tuesday. But while Trump said Washington was in the “final throes” of work on a trade deal with Beijing, he also underscored U.S. support for protesters in Hong Kong, seen as a sore point for Beijing.

· Japanese stocks rose for a fourth consecutive session on Wednesday on growing expectations the United States and China are nearing an agreement to scale back their bruising trade war.

The Nikkei index closed up 0.28% at 23,437.77, with advancers in the IT sector and industrial equipment sector pacing gains. So far this year, the index is up 16.78%.

Japanese shares extended gains, in line with a rally in equities globally, after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Washington was in the “final throes” of work on a deal that would defuse a 16-month trade war with Beijing.

Trump’s optimistic comments came one day after top negotiators from the two countries spoke by telephone and agreed to keep working on remaining issues.

· Japanese equities have climbed about 20% so far this year — but several major investors said they’re expecting further gains in those stocks in 2020.

An expected recovery in Japanese corporate earnings will drive their stock prices higher, predicted Morgan Stanley, UBS and Nomura. That comes after two consecutive years of earnings declines in Japan, due largely to a stronger yen and U.S.-China trade tensions, said UBS.

Japanese stocks are expected to rise next year to reach levels not seen in nearly three decades, a Reuters poll found, based on expectations the beaten-down global manufacturing sector will once again gather steam.

The median estimate by 26 analysts and fund managers polled Nov. 11-25 put the Nikkei benchmark .N225 up 7.3% at 25,000 by end-2020, compared with Monday's close of 23,292.

· China shares fell on Wednesday as weak industrial profit data highlighted growing strains on the economy, outweighing U.S. President Donald Trump’s remark that an initial trade deal with Beijing was near.

At the close, the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.1% to 2,903.19 and the blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.4%, while most other Asian markets gained on hopes of a deal.

Profits at China’s industrial firms shrank at their fastest pace in eight months in October, official data showed.

Industrial profits fell 9.9% in October year-on-year to 427.56 billion yuan ($60.74 billion), marking the biggest drop since the January-February period and compared with a 5.3% decline in September.

Trump said Washington was in the “final throes” of work on a deal that would defuse a 16-month trade war with Beijing, but also underscored Washington’s support for protesters in Hong Kong, a potential huge sore point with China.