Thawing of China-USA relations

There was more news from the APEC summit this morning with the announcement of a breakthrough between China and the USA in relation to eliminating duties on IT products. After Obama’s pledge to extend Chinese visas to America, this move suggests a thawing of China-USA relations, and will hopefully allow for the expansion of the Information Technology Agreement, likely to be discussed at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva in the next few months. The good news continued for the USA, as the Dow continued its trend of closing at record highs, yesterday reaching 17608.5, with a potential opening of 17635 suggested on the futures. And after having dipped slightly at the tail end of last week, the dollar rallied to close at 7 year highs against the yen last night at 115.8, leaving the American economy in its strongest position since the recession.

Despite the weakened yen, the Nikkei is still feeling the beneficial effects of the Bank of Japan’s QE decision nearly 2 weeks ago, aided by the report that a planned sales tax increase is to be postponed, led to its own 7 year closing high at 17158.12 last night. Meanwhile over in Europe,  the UK closed last night at 6617 after a strong start to the week, opening lower at 6608.2, but swiftly recovering to those closing numbers at 6618.5 this morning after strong earnings reports from key companies like Vodafone. The DAX meanwhile opened at 9358.8, nearly 10 points higher than its Monday close.

As expected, Alibaba had an incredible start to their Single’s Day, reportedly making $2 billion in their first hour, with present figures suggesting $6 billion so far,  the forecasted $8.2 billion daily earnings may seem underrated. Unsurprisingly, Alibaba’s stock prices closed 4.17% higher yesterday at 11916.5, as it maintains its position as one of the most desired shares on the market. However, Alibaba wasn’t along in having an excellent Tuesday morning. Renishaw, the British engineering company, have leapt 10.2% this morning to hit 1949 after forecasting a 20-25% leap in end of year revenue. Analysts expect this boost has come from Apple’s latest releases alongside a strong performance in the Asia-Pacific region.

Similarly, as mentioned above Vodafone are up nearly 5% this morning after announcing their half year 2014 earnings. The previously forecast figures of full year core earnings between 11.4-11.9 billion have been updated to 11.6-11.9 billion, explaining the positive sentiment that led Vodafone to reach 219.65 after this announcement. Finally, with their Messenger app users more than doubling from 200 million in April to 500 million this month, Facebook may see some movement when the NASDAQ opens later today.