According to reports from Bloomberg and Reuters, U.S. President Donald Trump is weighting the possibility of extending the March 1st deadline by which he has said he will implement new tariffs on Chinese goods if a trade deal hasn’t been reached. Trade talks are continuing in Beijing between high-level U.S. and Chinese trade officials, and even higher-level officials will be joining the negotiations on Thursday, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The talks are expected to end tomorrow, though there has been no indication that a deal will be reached within the confines of this round of talks.
Oil prices were higher on Thursday as traders found renewed optimism about the state of affairs between the U.S. and China. U.S. WTI futures were up 0.65 percent to $54.25 per barrel as of 2:05 p.m. HK/SIN, and Brent crude futures were up 0.79 percent to $64.11 per barrel. The commodity extended gains seen on Wednesday after OPEC gave final numbers for its production cuts in January and Saudi Arabia announced additional cuts from its own production levels. Also boosting oil prices was positive data out of China on Thursday which showed that the country’s crude imports increased in January from the same month last year, and that China imported over 10 million barrels per day of crude for the third consecutive month.
Stock Market Movements
Asian stock markets were mixed on Thursday following a positive day on Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was stable after two days of strong gains. China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.16 percent in the mid-afternoon while it’s Shenzhen Composite was up 0.63 percent. South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.06 percent was Australia’s ASX 200.