Financial Market Update – 8/8/2018

US

• US. stocks edged higher, rising 0.3%, pushing their winning streak to four days amid a relative cooling of protectionist rhetoric between the world’s two largest economies and optimism growth can continue.
• Tesla Inc. gained after Elon Musk proposed taking the company private. The news dominated an otherwise quiet afternoon session on Wall Street, with investors speculating on how serious the chief executive is about what would be the largest leveraged buyout in history. It overshadowed a strong end phase of an earnings season that’s seen most major U.S. companies surprise to the upside.
• In economic news, The Job Openings and Labour Turnover (JOLT) Survey for June showed further tightening in the labour market, consistent with upward revisions to payroll gains in the most recent employment report last week.

Europe

• European equities gained 0.6% as miners took the lead on speculation secondary metal processors cut production and expectations for higher railway investment in China. Sentiment toward the world’s second-largest economy improved this week on optimism the Chinese government will help cushion any economic risks arising from new U.S. tariffs.
• Top performing sectors, Basic Resources and Energy gained 1.7% and 1.6% respectively followed by the Industrials sector which gained 0.8%.

Asia

• Equities in Asia were weak overnight. Chinese equities fell 1.1% while Japanese equities rose just 0.1%.