Asia Stocks Mixed After China Data; Dollar Steady: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks drifted after a mixed bag of economic data from China. The dollar held near its weakest since before August’s trade-war turmoil.Stocks pared earlier gains to trade little changed after Chinese GDP growth weakened, though monthly industrial production data beat estimates. The indicators may have limited significance as investors look to a potential U.S.-China trade deal between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping next month. Shares in Hong Kong traded flat, while equities in Tokyo, Shanghai and Seoul slipped along with U.S. futures. Treasuries edged higher.The S&P 500 Index fluctuated around 3,000 Thursday, as Morgan Stanley became the latest big bank to buck concerns about weak growth. Elsewhere, oil traded around $54 a barrel in New York, comfortably above this month’s low around $51.“There’s no doubt there’s been some de-escalation of risk, global geopolitical economic risks relative to where we were two weeks ago,” said Michael Kushma, global fixed income chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. “But it may be just a false dawn. We don’t know yet. Our crystal ball is very cloudy at the moment.”China’s economic growth slowed to 6% in the third quarter, with limited pick-up from domestic demand and the downturn in global trade weighing. Gross domestic product rose the least since the early 1990s.Meantime, the pound was trading below the high reached on Thursday, which was a level unseen since May, as traders gauged the likelihood of U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson winning parliamentary backing on Saturday for his Brexit deal.Remaining events this week:The IMF and World Bank host annual meetings of global finance chiefs in WashingtonHere are the main moves in markets:StocksFutures on the S&P 500 fell 0.2% as of 5:37 a.m. in London. The underlying gauge rose 0.3% on Thursday.Japan’s Topix slid 0.2%.Hang Seng fell 0.1%.Shanghai Composite fell 0.6%Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index dipped 0.6%.Euro Stoxx 50 futures slid 0.4%.CurrenciesThe yen was at 108.57 per dollar, little changed.The offshore yuan was flat at 7.0789 per dollar.The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed after hitting the lowest level since July on Thursday.The pound was at $1.2844, down 0.4%.BondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries dipped a basis point to 1.74%.Australia’s 10-year yield remained at 1.10%.CommoditiesWest Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.2% to $53.82.Gold was steady at $1,491.81.To contact the reporters on this story: Christopher Anstey in Tokyo at canstey@bloomberg.net;Adam Haigh in Sydney at ahaigh1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Anstey at canstey@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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