Forex Marketz Daily Forex News – Fully Markets Update
Asian and Pacific Rim sentiment was a bit wobbly as the main equity bourses were mixed on Thursday heading into the afternoon.
Traders are concerned over rising political tensions between Beijing and Washington DC over Hong Kong. Overnight, the U.S. President irked China when he signed into law legislation backing pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong.
This move could delay a trade agreement with the two nations.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was down a fraction of a percent. Shares of Alibaba continued to rise as they added 3.16 percent. The company’s stock saw their debut earlier this week on the Hong Kong exchange and soared higher.
In China, on the mainland, the headline bourses were reversing early gains to inch lower. The Shanghai composite was down over 0.3 percent. The smaller Shenzhen composite was trading around the flat line and the Shenzhen component was down a fraction of a percent.
Elsewhere in the Asian and Pacific Rim, the Australian ASX 200 was up 0.15 percent. In South Korea, the Kospi composite index was down over 0.2 percent.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was trading flat and in Tokyo, the broader Topic index was down 0.15 percent by the afternoon.
Asian Sentiment Weakens over Political Tensions between China and the United States
Overnight, President Donald Trump signed into law legislation supporting the protestors in Hong Kong. This is fueling worries that this will end up delaying a signing of a preliminary trade accord between China and the United States.
China is now threatening to retaliate to the United States’ “sinister intentions.” China said that they will respond with unspecified retaliatory actions.
China’s Foreign Ministry said that this “act seriously interferes in the internal affairs of China violating international laws and basic principles of foreign relations.”
The government in Hong Kong said that the bill was “unnecessary and unwarranted.” They said that this bill will only harm relations between the United States and Hong Kong.
