Stocks Drop as Trade Tensions Ramp Up Before Talks: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) -- Stocks dropped Wednesday in Asia after a weak session on Wall Street spurred by escalating trade tensions, though declines were more modest than in the U.S. Trading volume was below average.Benchmark equity gauges in Tokyo were down by less than half the 1.6% drop in the S&P 500 Index overnight, continuing the pattern of outperformance seen last month. Australia and Hong Kong shares also saw more moderate drops. Chinese stocks erased losses to trade little changed, U.S. futures rose and the dollar was steady following gains earlier this week. European futures nudged higher. Ten-year Treasury yields were little changed, not far from their lowest in a month. Crude oil dipped toward $52 a barrel in New York.In the run-up to high-level U.S.-China trade talks in Washington this week, relations have deteriorated between the world’s two-largest economies. The Trump administration Tuesday put visa bans on Chinese officials linked to the mass detention of Muslims in Xinjiang province, after putting a number of Chinese technology firms on a blacklist the day before. And Bloomberg reported the White House is moving ahead with discussions about restricting U.S. government pension investments in China.China, meantime, has taken steps against the U.S. National Basketball Association in wake of a flap over a team manager’s remarks on Hong Kong.“It will be interesting to see how it plays out this week between the U.S. and China,” said Andrew Balls, chief investment officer for global fixed income at Pacific Investment Management Co. This comes “at a time when we already see growth pretty weak in the first half of next year and you have at least some evidence of weakness in manufacturing spilling into services,” he said.The U.S.-China flare-up overshadowed comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who indicated Tuesday that the central bank will move to address recent strains in money markets. Powell left his options open on interest rates weeks ahead of the next policy meeting.Elsewhere, the yuan edged up after a stronger than expected fixing of the daily reference rate. West Texas crude fell toward $52 a barrel.Here are some key events coming up this week:On Wednesday, minutes will be released from the last policy meeting of the Fed’s rate-setting committee.The account of the European Central Bank’s last gathering is due Thursday.Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly will meet at an unofficial summit.The U.S. releases a key measure of inflation on Thursday.Here are the main moves in markets:StocksJapan’s Topix index dropped 0.3% at the 3 p.m. close in Tokyo.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid 0.8%.The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.1%.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index declined 0.7%.Futures on the S&P 500 Index rose 0.3%. The underlying gauge fell 1.6% on Tuesday.Euro Stoxx 50 futures added 0.2%.CurrenciesThe yen was at 107.17 per dollar, little changed.The offshore yuan rose 0.2% to 7.1485 per dollar.The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was flat.The euro bought $1.0961.The British pound was at $1.2211.BondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries was at 1.53%.Australia’s 10-year yield dipped one basis point to 0.88%.CommoditiesGold was at $1,507.67 an ounce, little changed.West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.4% to $52.43 a barrel.\--With assistance from Sarah Ponczek, Vildana Hajric and Cormac Mullen.To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Haigh in Sydney at ahaigh1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Anstey at canstey@bloomberg.net, Ravil ShirodkarFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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