Morning Briefing: North American markets give Asia a lift, Europe subdued

North American markets give Asia a lift, Europe subdued... Keystone XL pipeline review continues despite appeal... China to grow at least 5 per cent through 2020 says Xi...

Steve Randall
North American markets give Asia a lift, Europe subdued
Asian stock markets have closed higher Tuesday as a positive conclusion to the previous session in Toronto and New York provided a boost. The North American markets were almost the only ones in the world to close higher Monday.

China is still high on the risk list for investors in the region though and Shanghai has closed lower along with Tokyo which ended down more than 2 per cent. Sydney was one of the best performers of the session after the Reserve Bank announced that it was holding steady on interest rates.

In Europe the mood is subdued as Volkswagen has been rocked by further claims of emissions-rigging, this time expanding to other marques including Porsche. The company denies any wrongdoing. Meanwhile UK regulators announced an investigation into Standard Chartered bank relating to money laundering and sanctions. The bank’s CEO also announced 15,000 job losses for the firm across its international workforce. Most major markets are narrowly lower so far.
Wall Street and Toronto are expected to open higher.
 
  Latest 1 month ago 1 year ago
 
North America (previous session)
US Dow Jones 17,828.76 (+0.94 per cent) +8.23 per cent +2.66 per cent
TSX Composite 13,623.01 (+0.69 per cent) +2.12 per cent -6.29 per cent
 
Europe (at 6.10am ET)
UK FTSE 6,356.15 (-0.09 per cent) +3.69 per cent -2.03 per cent
German DAX 10,915.97 (-0.32 per cent) +14.27 per cent +17.99 per cent
 
Asia (at close)
China CSI 300 3,465.49 (-0.30 per cent) +8.20 per cent +37.93 per cent
Japan Nikkei 18,683.24 (-2.10 per cent) +5.41 per cent +13.83 per cent
 
Other Data (at 6.00am ET)
Oil (Brent) Oil (WTI) Gold Can. Dollar
49.17
(+0.78 per cent)
46.56
(+0.91 per cent)
1131.10
(-0.42 per cent)
U$0.7628
 
Aus. Dollar
U$0.7180
 
Keystone XL pipeline review continues despite appeal
TransCanada has asked for a delay in the review of its Keystone XL pipeline project but the US State Department says that it will continue for now. The appeal by TransCanada could have delayed the decision by President Obama on the fate of the project; many analysts still expect that he will veto it. Reuters says that the appeal suggests TransCanada would prefer uncertainty to a definite “no”.
 
China to grow at least 5 per cent through 2020 says Xi
Chinese president Xi Jinping says that his country’s economy will grow by at least 6.5 per cent per year over the next five years. The official Chinese news agency report would mean that Beijing would be trimming the 7 per cent growth target that has been in place over recent years but would still achieve the Communist Party’s aim to double the economy by 2020. 
 

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