Asian stocks down as growth and trade worry Chinese markets

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China's stock markets suffered heavy losses, penalizing Asian equities on Friday, as trade-related tensions and weak corporate earnings in Europe worried growth World.

While the US markets were closed until Thanksgiving and Japan on holiday on Friday, the first exchanges were meaningless until the sale in China put a harder time on investors. in shares of the region.

European shares, by contrast, are expected to rise on Friday. Financial spreadbetters are expected to see the FTSE .FTSE in London, the DAX .GDAXI in Frankfurt and the CAC .FCHI in Paris rise by 0.3% each.

The widest MSCI index of Asia Pacific shares out of Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS lost 0.23%, while the Chinese blue chips .CSI300 fell by 2% and that's the only one in the world. Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC lost 2.2%.

Chinese markets are plunged into an economic slump, while the US-Canada trade war has exacerbated concerns about slowing growth. Few analysts expect a lasting improvement in Chinese equities, although US and Chinese leaders are improving ties at a G20 meeting in Argentina at the end of the month.

At this point, some economists doubt that the G20 talks are making progress.

ING's Prakash Sakpal in Singapore said there was "no promising development" since the start of the trade war.

"There is a lot of rhetoric that pushes things further from any solid consensus that the two countries could meet."

Kospi .KS11 Seoul ended down 0.6% and Taiwan .TWII shares lost 0.5%. Hang Seng .HSI of Hong Kong lost 0.6% of its afternoon trading.

Australian stocks maintained their gains, up 0.4%, but recorded their second consecutive weekly loss.

US equity futures showed weakness on Wall Street when trading resumes on Friday. S & P E-mini ESc1 futures contracts fell 0.5% to 2,636.

On Thursday, European stock markets were penalized by disappointing results, revealing new signs that corporate earnings growth is at a global peak.

These profits highlighted the persistent concern of equity investors, trade tensions, the slowdown in global investment and growth that kept the stock markets lagging behind a torrid October. A draft agreement on future relations between Great Britain and the European Union, concluded Thursday night, has done little to ease the mood.

On the foreign exchange market, the GBP = sterling remained stable, buying 1.2875 dollars after rising more than 1% on Thursday at the announcement of the draft agreement between Britain and the United Kingdom. 39, which describes a close post-Brexit relationship. The agreement follows a draft treaty last week setting the conditions for the departure of Britain from the EU in March.

But the agreement faces considerable difficulties once it reaches a deeply divided British parliament, which contains radical Eurosceptic factions and fiercely pro-European supporters, as well as various shades of gray between the two.

Indeed, analysts at the National Australia Bank have warned against early celebrations.

"After European leaders must endorse this political declaration alongside the withdrawal agreement at a summit on Sunday, the" meaningful vote "in the UK Parliament is expected to unfold in the second week of December. It would be far too optimistic to declare victory on an agreement at the moment, "they said in a note addressed to customers.

EUR = slightly increased to US $ 1,1413, despite Italian leaders' statements that they will continue to worsen the country's deficit next year and withstand pressure from EU authorities to reduce budget, with investors preferring to focus on more conciliatory than contradictory

The dollar weakened by 0.08% against the yen to 112.84 JPY =.

The Chinese yuan CNY = CFXS fell to 6.9386 to the dollar, which weighed on trade concerns. The currency has also been under pressure in recent weeks due to falling Chinese rates, as shorter-term Chinese government bond yields are lower than their US counterparts.

(Chart: China-US credit spreads – tmsnrt.rs/2Rcprhr)

In commodities markets, oil prices reached their lowest level in 2018, as US inventories reached their highest level since December, reinforcing concerns over the global overabundance of oil prices. gross.

US crude CLc1 traded down 2.5% to 53.24 dollars, after reaching less than 5 cents from a low of October 2017 reached at the beginning of the week. The futures contracts on Brent LCoC1 reached their lowest level since December 2017 at 61.52 dollars per barrel, and were down 1.2% to 61.85 dollars per barrel.

The XAU = gold spot was stable at $ 1,227.17 per ounce. [GOL/]