Markets Acted Quietly To The Escalating US-China Trade Dispute - APAC Update

Xe Corporate APAC

12. Mai 2019 — 3 min read

The AUDUSD opens at 0.6991 (mid-rate) , and the NZDUSD opens at 0.6587 (mid-rate) this morning.

Ahead of this weekend’s election, direction for the AUD will be dictated by Wednesday’s wage price index and more importantly Thursday’s employment report.

Markets have had a muted reaction to the escalating US-China trade dispute, which intensified on Friday after Donald Trump made good his threat to raise tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10% to 25%. US equity markets which had gapped lower on the open rebounded during the trading day and closing out the day with a small gain.

Markets are likely remain nervous while waiting for China to react, following US tariffs imposed earlier this year China reacted by raising duties on $110 billion of American imports.

Post the market close Trump tweeted that there is "absolutely no need to rush" to reach a trade agreement with China and that the process has begun to place tariffs on the remaining $325 billion worth of Chinese imports.

The weekend’s economic data releases were largely overshadowed by the tariff news and the US CPI report which is closely monitored by investors and on this occasion fell just shy of economist’s estimates had little effect on the markets.

The Labour Department reported its consumer price index rose by 0.3% in April after increasing by 0.4% in March, core CPI which excludes food and energy prices inched up by 0.1% for the third month in a row.

Global equity markets closed mixed on Friday, - Dow +0.44%, S&P 500 +0.37%, FTSE -0.06%, DAX +0.72%, CAC +0.27%, Nikkei -0.27, Shanghai +3.10%.

Gold prices were unchanged on Friday closing out the week at $1,285 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil prices edged higher on Friday, up  0.4%  closing at $61.80 a barrel.

Mid-market Rates

AUDUSD0.69910.0%NZDUSD0.6587-0.1%AUDEUR0.6225-0.1%NZDEUR0.5865-0.1%AUDGBP0.53810.2%NZDGBP0.50690.1%AUDJPY76.720.1%NZDJPY72.310.1%AUDNZD1.06150.1%NZDAUD0.9421-0.1%GBPAUD1.8584-0.2%NZDCAD0.8843-0.4% GBPNZD1.9728-0.1%
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