Oil prices and stocks around the globe added gains overnight and early on Tuesday, as the world’s two largest economies agreed to hold further talks to boost the United States’ exports to China.

“China has never hoped for any tensions between China and the United States, in the trade or other arenas,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily briefing.

“China has agreed to buy massive amounts of ADDITIONAL Farm/Agricultural Products - would be one of the best things to happen to our farmers in many years!” U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter on Monday.

Global markets

Wall Street indices rose overnight. The Dow jumped 1.2 percent, the S&P 500 gained 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq added 0.5 percent.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.1 percent early on Tuesday. 

Despite two days of gains, the MSCI index was still well below an all-time peak of 617.12 hit in January.

Middle East markets

Markets were mixed in the Middle East on Monday. 

Property stocks in the United Arab Emirates were boosted by the decision of the UAE government to grant residency visas of up to 10 years to investors and specialists in scientific, technical, medical and research fields, as well as for all scientists and innovators.

The UAE move "will surely boost the performance of the real estate sector and give comfort to the investors there and especially property owners," Marie Salem, director of capital markets at FFA Dubai, told Reuters.

Dubai’s index added 1 percent as Emaar Properties rose 2.9 percent and Damac Properties climbed 4.8 percent, lifting the Dubai index by almost 1 percent to a more than two-week high of 2,947 points.

In Abu Dhabi, the main index added 0.7 percent, helped by a 0.9 percent gain in market heavyweight, telecommunications company Etisalat. 

Qatar’s index rose 1 percent as Qatar National Bank surged 3.9 percent.

Saudi Arabia’s index fell 0.3 percent, as investors took profit in property Jabal Omar, which ended 2.9 percent lower. The stock had surged 3.9 percent on Sunday after announcing an agreement with Albilad Capital to sell 90 housing units for 1.1 billion riyals ($293 million).

Egypt’s index was flat, Kuwait’s index was 0.1 percent down, Oman’s index edged up 0.1 percent and Bahrain’s index ended the session flat.

Oil prices

Oil prices added gains early on Tuesday, boosted by easing trade tensions between the U.S. and China as well as potential U.S. sanctions in Venezuela.

Brent crude futures were at $79.39 per barrel at 0226 GMT, up 17 cents, or 0.2 percent, from their last close. Brent broke through $80 for the first time since November 2014 last week.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $72.47 a barrel, up 23 cents, or 0.3 percent.

“(Oil inventory) is tight and the U.S. will probably tighten sanctions on Venezuela which will make the Venezuela situation worse and which means we can expect continued falling Venezuelan production,” Tony Nunan, oil risk manager at Mitsubishi Corp in Tokyo, told Reuters.

“Combined with expectations for falling Iranian production as the U.S. pressures allies to reduce their imports this will push crude oil prices up to $80 a barrel and we think it can go higher.”

Currencies

The dollar was trading near four-month highs early on Tuesday. 

The dollar index was last down 0.1 percent at 93.52 from Monday’s top of 94.058.

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Commentary: A stronger dollar puts pressure on emerging market currencies.

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Precious metals

Gold prices edged down early on Tuesday on a strong dollar.

Spot gold eased 0.1 percent to $1,290.66 per ounce as of 0250 GMT. In the previous session, it slid to $1,281.76, its lowest since December 27.

In other news…

In Algeria, customs data released on Monday showed that the country’s trade deficit fell to $856 million in the first four months from a $3.87 billion in the same period last year.

(Writing Gerard Aoun; Editing by Shane McGinley)
(gerard.aoun@thomsonreuters.com)

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