Dubai: The S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes hit record highs after opening up about 0.3 per cent each on Thursday and the Nasdaq gained 0.5 per cent after China said the world’s top two economies had agreed to rollback tariffs in phases.
Elsewhere, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.4 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index pushed 0.6 per cent higher and Japan’s Nikkei 225 edged up 0.1 per cent.
China’s commerce ministry said that while the world’s two economic giants still have to agree to simultaneously cancel some existing tariffs on each other’s goods for both sides to reach a ‘phase-one’ trade deal, they have agreed to cancel further tariffs in different phases.
The news also comes after reports that a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could be postponed until December, possibly delaying an interim trade deal.
Analysts say that with these latest developments have pushed risk appetite higher as China’s latest indications of progress on trade helped counter earlier reports of a delay for a preliminary deal.
As economic indicators show signs of stabilisation, after better-than-expected US jobs data and surprisingly stronger China PMI earlier this week, analysts say that investors will now be looking for more signs of avoiding a global recession.
Oil prices jumped over a per cent on hopes of an easing in US-China trade tensions, but safe-havens including treasuries and gold slipped.
