Global equity markets gained on Tuesday as the latest tit-for-tat U.S.-Chinese trade war was seen as barely denting world growth, while U.S. Treasury yields rose in anticipation the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates this year and next.
China said it will levy tariffs on about $60 billion worth of U.S. goods, as previously planned, but cut the level of tariffs it will collect. On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump said 10-percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese products will take effect on Sept. 24, reaching 25 percent by year-end.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS gained 0.43 percent and the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.02 percent. Wall Street was higher.
China has limited retaliatory levers it can pull on the tariff front, said Anthony Saglimbene, global market strategist at Ameriprise Financial Services in Troy, Michigan.
“The dent on the economic picture is likely to be small. We anticipate this last round of tariffs, the $200 billion, it’s only probably going to add 0.2 percentage points to consumer prices. That’s nothing,” he said.
The United States took 300 consumer products off its original list of products to receive tariff hikes, which will blunt the impact on the consumer, Saglimbene said.
Dutch bank ING estimated that 2.5 percent of world trade was now affected by the tariffs and it will be 4 percent if Trump carries out threats to put levies on all Chinese imports.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 80.49 points, or 0.31 percent, to 26,142.61. The S&P 500 .SPX gained 13.49 points, or 0.47 percent, to 2,902.29 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 66.75 points, or 0.85 percent, to 7,962.55.
Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei .N225 in Tokyo ended 1.4 percent higher and MSCI’s 24-country emerging market index .MSCIEF was up for the fourth day in the last five.
Despite all the noise, the widely-tracked dollar currency index .DXY rose 0.03 percent, with the euro EUR= was up 0.06 percent to $1.169.
The Japanese yen JPY= weakened 0.45 percent versus the greenback at 112.37 per dollar.
U.S. benchmark 10-year and 30-year yields both climbed to fresh four-month peaks as investors continued to price in more interest rate increases by the Fed this year and next.
Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR fell 8/32 in price to lift its yield to 3.031 percent.
In Europe, Italian government bond yields fell sharply on growing optimism that Italy’s new coalition budget will respect European Union rules on fiscal discipline.
Two- and five-year yields fell as much as 15 basis points to their lowest levels since July, while yields on short-dated top-rated German debt rose to four-month highs.
Oil rose more than $1 a barrel on signs the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would not be prepared to raise output to address shrinking supplies from Iran, and as Saudi Arabia signaled it was in no rush to bring prices down.
U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 84 cents to $69.75 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last up 83 cents at $78.88 per barrel.
