World stock indexes have jumped, with Wall Street posting a fourth straight week of gains, and the US dollar reaching its first positive week since mid-December as optimism increased that an end is in sight to the US-China trade conflict.
Stocks were boosted by a Bloomberg report that said China sought to raise its annual goods imports from the US by more than $US1 trillion in order to reduce its trade surplus to zero by 2024. That followed a report on Thursday that US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was considering lifting some or all tariffs imposed on Chinese imports. The Treasury denied Mnuchin had made any such recommendation.
While the equity rally lifted all major sectors, trade-sensitive industrials posted among the biggest S&P 500 sector gains, up 1.9 per cent on the day. The Philadelphia SE semiconductor index rose more than 2 per cent and Germany’s exporter-heavy DAX was up 2.6 per cent.
Adding to strength in equities and supporting US Treasury yields was data that showed US manufacturing output increased the most in 10 months in December. Some strategists said relatively light equity trading volume this week indicated that some investors were still waiting on the sidelines.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 336.25 points, or 1.38 per cent, to 24,706.35, the S&P 500 gained 34.75 points, or 1.32 per cent, to 2670.71 and the Nasdaq Composite added 72.77 points, or 1.03 per cent, to 7157.23.
Morning-Market-Note-Monday-21st-January