The euro climbed on Friday as traders were encouraged by improved regional economic growth data and new assurances by Italian politicians that their nation would not leave the single currency. The euro registered a weekly gain of nearly 0.5 percent against the dollar, reversing the prior week’s 1.35 percent drop tied to the European Central Bank’s hint it would hold interest rates through the summer of 2019. The euro’s advance, together with a rebound in commodity-linked and emerging market currencies, pressured the dollar which ended lower on the week. “The ...

Greek bond yields dropped on Friday after euro zone finance ministers agreed a plan to ease Greece’s heavy debt burden and allow it to stand its own feet after it officially leaves a bailout programme in August. Euro zone finance ministers extended maturities and deferred interest of a major part of their loans to Greece and agreed a big cash injection to ensure Athens is able manage a debt level that many feared was unsustainable. “This had been anticipated but it is a positive in terms of the debt relief ...

NASDAQ-Adv: 1,619 Dec: 1,400 NYSE-Adv: 1,960 Dec: 1,002 (Source: Nasdaq)

Just when it looked like things couldn’t get much worse for emerging markets, along comes a trade war. And it’s hitting emerging-market commodity producers and exporters to China especially hard. Take Thailand and South Africa, which each ship about 20 percent of their foreign-bound goods to China. The Thai baht has just reversed year-to-date gains against the dollar, while the South African rand is down 1.9 percent this week, the most among 24 major emerging currencies tracked by Bloomberg, and near a seven-month low. The pain is evident in raw ...

The euro trimmed some early gains on Friday as concerns of a growing trade conflict between the world’s two biggest economies kept a lid on appetite for taking large risky bets. In early trading, the single currency had rallied half a percent after stronger than expected French business activity in June raised hopes that concerns about a widening slowdown in the eurozone in the second quarter may be slightly overdone. With Germany flash services PMI data also beating forecasts, the single currency briefly rose to the day’s highs at $1.1674. ...

World shares rose on Friday but were set to end a second week lower amid intensifying worries over the fallout of a trade dispute resulting from U.S. tariffs, while oil prices were higher ahead of an OPEC meeting later in the day. The MSCI All-Country World index <.MIWD00000PUS>, which tracks stocks in 47 countries, was up 0.2 percent in the European morning but down 1.3 percent on the week, its worst weekly showing since mid-March. Investor anxiety over a possible full-blown trade war has deepened this week over increasingly sharp ...

Asian stock markets are pricing in the probability of a more serious trade dispute causing an earnings recession at about one in five, according to a UBS Group AG study. This week’s escalation in tension between the U.S. and China, which led to declines in equities on Monday and Tuesday, has seen equity investors increase their expectations of that becoming a reality by about 9 percent, strategists including Niall MacLeod wrote in a report. A full fledged trade war could see stocks in Asia tumble 30 percent from this year’s ...

The euro climbed half a percent on Friday after stronger than expected French business activity in June raised hopes that concerns about a widening slowdown in the eurozone in the second quarter may be slightly overdone. With Germany flash services PMI data also beating forecasts, the single currency rose to the day’s highs at $1.1674. For the week it is poised to register a 0.5 percent rise, breaking last week’s fall. “There was a lot of euro selling in the last few weeks because of the Italian market selloff and ...

The dollar fell from an 11-month high against a basket of major currencies on profit-taking on Thursday, while sterling recovered from a seven-month low as the Bank of England’s top economist unexpectedly supported an interest rate hike. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s gauge of U.S. Mid-Atlantic business activity fell to a 1-1/2 year low, raising concern about the U.S. economy and causing some traders to book profits on bullish dollar bets, analysts said. Lower yields on U.S. Treasuries and the euro’s finding chart support in the $1.15 area also contributed to ...

NASDAQ-Adv: 855 Dec: 2,182 NYSE-Adv: 949 Dec: 2,018 (Source: Nasdaq)

Investors may be mispricing the trade war by dumping Chinese shares more aggressively than those in Taiwan, Malaysia and South Korea, according to Bloomberg Economics’ Fielding Chen and Tom Orlik. China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index slumped 3.8 percent Tuesday, the biggest decline in Asia, even though many of its neighbors are more exposed to trade skirmishes, the economists wrote in a June 20 note. The index was down a further 1 percent Wednesday. “The pattern of declines did not reflect the distribution of risks,” said Chen and Orlik. “The reality ...

Stocks in Europe and U.S. futures showed further signs of stabilizing Thursday, while Asian markets were mixed, as investors continued to gauge the impact of an escalation in trade tensions between the U.S. and China. The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.3% in early trade. Futures markets pointed to a 0.2% opening gain for the S&P 500 after the index ended a three-session streak of declines on Wednesday. In Asia, Chinese stocks came under renewed pressure, while Japanese and Australian equities outperformed. The U.S. dollar, meanwhile, continued to climb, reaching its ...

NASDAQ-Adv: 1,933 Dec: 1,077 NYSE-Adv: 1,805 Dec: 1,155 (Source: Nasdaq)

The prospect that China would use currency devaluation to retaliate against any escalations of U.S. tariffs loomed in the aftermath of a sharp drop in the country’s stock markets. But one gauge of the Chinese currency’s strength indicates no efforts to devalue this year. On Wednesday, the central bank set its reference rate for the yuan at 6.4586 to the dollar, 0.5% weaker than Tuesday’s rate and the lowest since January. “One would imagine that China will be thinking about currency devaluation again,” said Rabobank senior Asia-Pacific strategist Michael Every ...

The dollar was steady on Wednesday, hovering near an 11-month peak against a basket of major currencies as China’s signal of tolerance of a stronger yuan offset anxiety about the global trade conflict. The greenback, as well as the yen and Swiss franc, remained well supported as traders braced for another possible round of U.S. tariffs against China. “We are now entering into concerning territory,” said Alessio de Longis, portfolio manager for OppenheimerFunds’ global multi-asset group in New York. “This is happening when global growth is already slowing outside the ...