Stocks flat ahead of key US-China trade talks
Heritage Foundation economist Steve Moore says the stock market overreacted to President Trump’s threat to raise tariffs on Chinese goods.
Stocks closed largely flat on Wednesday after Wall Street worries that U.S.-China trade talks may fail were eased somewhat after White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the Chinese "want to make a deal."
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 44151.51 | +422.17 | +0.97% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 6011.34 | +38.24 | +0.64% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 19313.199964 | +43.74 | +0.23% |
The reason for the worries stems from a development last week, when Chinese negotiators walked back a number of concessions that had been agreed upon with American negotiators, according to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. In response, President Trump tweeted that on Friday he will sharply increase tariffs on Chinese goods.
Prospects that the trade talks, which will resume on Thursday in Washington, D.C., could founder and the costly conflict between the world's two biggest economies continue caused investors to bail out of equities, sending major indexes plunging on Monday and Tuesday.
However, on Wednesday shortly before the opening bell, Trump tweeted that China's vice premier is coming to the U.S. "to make a deal," and Sanders repeated that message shortly before noon.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped fractionally to 2.43 percent.
Crude oil prices edged higher to $61.61 per barrel after the Energy Information Administration said there was an unexpectedly large drawdown of 4 million barrels last week.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIS | THE WALT DISNEY CO. | 98.93 | +0.04 | +0.04% |
Investors will be watching for quarterly earnings from Disney after the closing bell. Disney is expected to post second-quarter earnings per share of $1.58, down 14 percent from the year-ago quarter, on a 1 percent slide in revenue to $14.36 billion.
Looking back over the last eight quarters, Disney has beaten earnings estimates six times and revenue estimates three times. Of the 27 analysts who follow Disney, 20 have a Buy rating on the stock, according to Refinitiv.
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China’s Shanghai Composite closed down 1.12 percent, the Hang Seng was lower by 1.23 percent and Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed lower by 1.46 percent.
Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.17 percent, France’s CAC 40 slipped 0.07 percent and Germany’s DAX climbed 0.31 percent.