Wall Street continues to fluctuate with the often contradictory interventions of US President Donald Trump. Major US stock indexes ended higher on Wednesday, but they failed to keep their highest levels of the session.
Donald Trump is being rather optimistic about the conclusion of a comprehensive trade agreement with China by the end of March.
At closing, the Dow Jones Index gained 0.64% to 24,527 points, after a jump of 1.7% in session. The broad S & P 500 index gained 0.54% to 2,651 pts, and the composite Nasdaq index, rich in technology and biotechnology stocks, rose 0.95% to 7,098 pts. Abroad, the Nikkei jumped Wednesday morning 2.1% in Tokyo, then in Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 rose 1.7% and in Paris, the CAC 40 gained 2.1%.
US President Donald Trump also said he wanted to intervene personally in the Huawei affair if that would benefit the relationship with Beijing. Meng Wanzhou is now on bail but must stay in Canada. These were the words that brought some relief to the heart of the financial markets, who feared that the Huawei affair would overthrow trade negotiations.
For its part, China is preparing to lower taxes on imports of cars from the United States, a sign of goodwill. The markets appreciated the reports of a 40% to 15% drop in US car import taxes in China. The custom duties are back to what it was before the trade dispute, which will benefit the US car manufacturers. These rather reassuring prospects have contributed to a rebound in equities, which however needs to be confirmed by other positive news. Stocks that are sensitive to the trade war were on the rise, although profits declined somewhat towards the end of the session. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing added 1.5 percent and the equipment manufacturers Caterpillar and Deere grew 1.7 percent and 0.8 percent. Car companies Ford Motor and General Motors (GM) got up to 2.9 percent.
