· European shares open lower Thursday taking cue from Asia and Wall Street.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down by 0.22 percent with almost every sector in the red.
Investors are taking a cautious approach as they wait for further details on a possible trade agreement between China and the U.S. As a result, Asian stocks traded mostly lower on Thursday.
· Asian shares eased on Thursday, with caution prevailing as investors awaited some kind of resolution to Sino-U.S. trade negotiations, while the euro remained under pressure ahead of the European Central Bank meeting.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged 0.2 percent lower on Thursday, yet hovering not far from its five-month high marked last week, and was up 10.2 percent year-to-date.
“For some time, markets had been pricing in good news, namely that the talks between the U.S. and China will likely go well,” said Tatsushi Maeno, senior strategist at Okasan Asset Management. “Now markets are having a pause.”
Adding to concerns about the talks was data that showed the U.S. goods trade deficit surged to a record high in 2018 as strong domestic demand pulled in imports, despite the Trump administration’s “America First” policies aimed at shrinking the gap.
Other U.S. data out on Wednesday suggested some slowing in the labor market, though the pace of job gains remains more than enough to drive the unemployment rate down.
The ADP National Employment Report showed private payrolls increased by 183,000 in February after surging 300,000 in January. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast private payrolls advancing 189,000 in February.
· Japan’s Nikkei hit a one-week low on Thursday, with chip-related stocks tracking a decline in their U.S. peers and banks retreating after Mizuho Financial Group slashed its profit outlook.
The Nikkei share average ended down 0.65 percent at 21,456.01 after going as low as 21,402.12, its weakest since Feb. 28.
“Profit-taking makes sense now as ongoing U.S.-China trade talks, major concerns for the market, have provided no signs of exit plan while the market had risen smoothly for the past two months,” said Hikaru Sato, a senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities.
· Chinese blue-chips fell on Thursday after four straight sessions of gains while Shanghai shares closed slightly higher in a volatile session of trade, after the finance minister reiterated that China would not seek to flood a slowing economy with stimulus.
At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was up 0.14 percent at 3,106.42, having earlier lost as much as 0.9 percent. The blue-chip CSI300 index ended 1.02 percent lower.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
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