Global stocks rose on Tuesday, buoyed by Wall Street’s close at a record high and hopes that OPEC will support the price of oil with a production cut.
KEEPING SCORE: France’s CAC 40 added 0.8 percent to 4,563, while Germany’s DAX was up 0.6 percent at 10,746. Britain’s FTSE 100 was 1.1 percent higher at 6,849. U.S. shares were set to add to their record levels, with Dow and S&P 500 futures both up 0.3 percent, as optimism continued over the potential boost to the economy from President-elect Donald Trump’s policies.
OPEC LOOMING: Expectations are growing that oil ministers will agree to limit production at a meeting of the OPEC oil cartel on Nov. 30 in Vienna, Austria. That’s helped buoy oil prices in markets. Benchmark U.S. crude was down 7 cents to $48.17 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, having jumped $1.88 on Monday. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 13 cents to $49.03.
ANALYST TAKE: “Investors are trying to strike the right balance between positioning for a major dose of U.S. fiscal stimulus and not getting too committed, given the uncertainty surrounding what policies the new Trump Administration will actually implement,” Margaret Yang, a market analyst at CMC Markets, said in a commentary.
RENMINBI RETREAT: Chinese authorities set the yuan’s official “parity rate,” known as the fix, for the country’s tightly controlled currency at 6.8779 on Tuesday, breaking a 12-day losing streak. The yuan, also known as the renminbi, has been weakening as the dollar has surged in value against other currencies.
ASIA’S DAY: Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock index added 0.3 percent to finish at 18,162.94 after dipping briefly following a powerful earthquake in northern Japan that set off a small tsunami but caused minor damage and injuries. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.9 percent to 1,983.47 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 1.4 percent to 22,678.07. Australia’s S&P ASX/200 added 1.2 percent to 5,413.30 and the Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.9 percent to 3,248.35. Shares in Southeast Asia and Taiwan also gained.
CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 110.84 yen from 110.43 yen on Monday. The euro edged down to $1.0629 from $1.0638.
