Despite all the back and forth between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping’s negotiating teams, the U.S. and China will ultimately come to a trade agreement, according to one investor. When that happens, markets could soar 15 percent or more for the rest of the year, said Jackson Wong, associate director at Huarong International Securities. “The rumor is (that by the) end of April, the deal would be 90 percent done. And, by end June, (the) deal would be signed,” Wong told CNBC’s “Street Signs” on Friday. Wong’s prediction follows the ...

Investors are betting on heightened political uncertainty and greater volatility in European stock markets ahead of European Parliament elections in May amid growing concerns about rising populism. In one of the first concrete signs in financial markets that investors are bracing for political instability, VSTOXX futures, which reflect investor sentiment and economic uncertainty, have jumped in recent weeks. While the classic gauge of fear — known as implied volatility, which tracks demand for options in European stocks — is currently at 15.68, futures that bet on the same thing over ...

The dollar fell against the safe-haven Japanese yen on Friday as dismal U.S. manufacturing data fuelled worries about the wider economy, and Treasury bond yields signalled growing fears of a recession. The dollar, however, rose against the euro as a much weaker-than-expected German manufacturing survey raised concerns that Europe’s powerhouse economy may be slowing. On Friday, the spread between 3-month Treasury bills and 10-year note yields inverted for the first time since 2007 after U.S. PMI manufacturing data missed estimates. This inversion of the yield curve is widely seen as ...

The Shanghai Stock Exchange took a major step toward launching its hotly-anticipated Nasdaq-style technology board, announcing on Friday that it had accepted listing applications from nine companies, in sectors from chip making to new energy technology. The announcement on the exchange’s website means share trading will start on the Science and Technology Innovation board as soon as June, since the exchange will take three months to review applications. The new tech board, announced by President Xi Jinping in November, marks a radical shift from the current lengthy and cumbersome process ...

NASDAQ-Adv: 548 Dec: 2,613 NYSE-Adv: 586 Dec: 2,396 (Source: Nasdaq)

The volatility gauge for euro-zone stocks jumped to six-week highs on Friday after weaker-than-expected manufacturing data for the euro zone and Germany underscored worries about slowing growth in the region. The euro zone’s blue-chip STOXX50 volatility index was up 5.1 percent at 16.49 at 1009 GMT, after hitting its highest since Feb. 8 earlier in the session. The rise came as stocks fell sharply into negative territory after data which revealed euro zone businesses performed much worse than expected in March as factory activity contracted at the fastest pace in ...

The time is ripe for euro zone countries to deepen the monetary union and strengthen the currency’s global role, but they still have to overcome differences on fiscal instruments for a future common budget, the head of its ESM bailout fund said on Friday. Speaking at a conference in Lisbon, where Eurogroup chairman Mario Centeno made a similar call, Klaus Regling said the ESM’s discussions with investors had shown that they are closely looking at the topic of the currency’s global role. “If we succeed in deepening monetary union further, ...

Strategists are starting to cast doubt on the powerful new-year rally in European equities. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index is expected to lose 6 percent from Wednesday’s closing levels to 358 points by the end of 2019, according to the average projection in the latest Bloomberg poll. The Euro Stoxx 50 Index, home of the euro-area’s biggest companies, is seen declining 4 percent from current levels to 3,238, according to the average survey estimate. The region’s equities this week almost erased the impact from the end of 2018’s sell-off as ...

British pound buoyed by Brexit extension The U.S. dollar climbed modestly in early Friday trading, with the euro under pressure following a round of disappointing economic data. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index continued its climb after Thursday’s gains and rose 0.2% to 96.707. For the week, the gauge, which measures the greenback against six rivals, is on track for a modest 0.1% gain. Notably, it fell to a six-week low on Wednesday , following the Federal Reserve’s dovish policy update. The euro was among the weakest performers against the dollar ...

Global stocks were mostly flat Friday after European Union leaders agreed to a short Brexit delay, while investors weighed further signs of a sluggish global economy. The Stoxx Europe 600 was broadly flat in morning trade, and Asian stocks finished slightly higher. On Wall Street, futures pointed to 0.2% opening falls for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Late Thursday, European Union leaders allowed U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May to postpone the Brexit deadline beyond next week, but warned Britain could still crash out of the bloc ...

The dollar dropped on Friday, giving up some of its overnight gains and on track for a second consecutive weekly dip thanks to renewed downward pressure on government bond yields. Sterling bounced on Friday after suffering its biggest daily drop overnight so far this year in the London trading session after Prime Minister Theresa May bought a bit more time to resolve when and how Britain exits from the European Union. Despite the rise, currency derivative markets signalled a growing caution the outlook for the British currency with one-month risk ...

The pound plunged on Thursday and was heading for its biggest one-day fall this year on growing fears of a “no-deal” Brexit should British lawmakers hold firm in their rejection of Prime Minister Theresa May’s EU divorce deal. While a broad-based rally in the dollar also weighed on the pound, traders said the risks of a no-deal Brexit have grown in the last 48 hours, sending the British currency falling across the board and kicking bond yields lower. “A dollar rally and a broad unwinding of long sterling positions across ...

NASDAQ-Adv: 1,870 Dec: 1,284 NYSE-Adv: 2,111 Dec: 838 (Source: Nasdaq)

Stock exchanges in Europe are not harming markets or gouging customers with the fees they charge for data, an industry-commissioned report said on Thursday. The report from consultants Oxera for the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) wants to counter accusations from investment funds that “monopoly” bourses were continually hiking fees for market data to lift profits. Investment firms have called on the EU’s markets watchdog ESMA to review market data fees charged by exchanges, saying they keep on rising despite falling costs of computing and data storage. Oxera’s report ...

Norges Bank raises rates, Bank of England leaves monetary policy unchanged The U.S. dollar climbed in early Thursday trading, retracing some of its losses from the previous session that it incurred after the Federal Reserve reiterated its dovish monetary policy stance. The U.S. central bank cut its expectations for 2019 interest-rate increases from two to zero, downgraded its economic outlook as Chairman Jerome Powell stressed that it was a “great time” to be patient. The greenback, measured by the ICE U.S. Dollar Index , in response fell 0.7% and recorded ...