US markets end higher on hopes for US-China trade deal

19 Jun 2019 Evaluate

The US markets ended higher on Tuesday after President Donald Trump said he had a very good telephone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping and will have an extended meeting at the G20 summit next week. This has led to renewed optimism that the US and China could finally reach an agreement to end their long-running trade dispute. Trump had previously threatened to raise tariffs on another $300 billion worth of Chinese goods if Xi did not attend the G20 summit. The president's telephone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping added to the positive sentiment surrounding markets amid optimism that the Fed will strike a dovish tone in its statement announcing its latest monetary policy decision on June 19. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged but could signal plans to cut rates as soon as its next meeting at the end of July. Optimism about a potential rate cut has helped to prop up the markets ever since Fed Chairman Jerome Powell pledged to act as appropriate to support the US economic expansion.

On the economic front, a report released by the Commerce Department showed new residential construction in the US unexpectedly decreased in the month of May, although from an upwardly revised level. The Commerce Department said housing starts slid by 0.9 percent to an annual rate of 1.269 million in May from an upwardly revised April estimate of 1.281 million. Street had expected housing starts to edge up to 1.239 million from the 1.235 million originally reported for April. The unexpected pullback came as housing starts in the Northeast plummeted by 45.5 percent to a rate of 73,000 in May from 134,000 in April. Housing starts also slumped by 8.0 percent in the Midwest and fell by 2.4 percent in the West, but housing starts in the South soared by 11.2 percent. The report also said single-family housing starts plunged by 6.4 percent to a rate of 820,000, more than offsetting a 10.9 percent spike in multi-family starts to a rate of 449,000.

Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 353.01 points or 1.35 percent to 26465.54, Nasdaq rose 108.86 points or 1.39 percent to 7953.88 and S&P 500 was up by 28.08 points or 0.97 percent to 2917.75.

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