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- Stock markets rise on Friday
- Oil prices edge lower ahead of oil meeting
- Middle East markets rise on Thursday
- Dollar remains unchanged, gold rises
Global markets
Stocks across the globe rose on Friday before a meeting on trade between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Everybody’s anticipating a positive meeting between Trump and President Xi,” Denis (Sandy) Villere, portfolio manager at Villere & Co in New Orleans, told Reuters.
“It’s priced in as if it’s a foregone conclusion. It’s making us a little nervous that the market’s already baked in all that good news.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 72.84 points, or 0.27%, to 26,599.42, the S&P 500 gained 16.53 points, or 0.57%, to 2,941.45 and the Nasdaq Composite added 38.49 points, or 0.48%, to 8,006.24.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.70% to notch its best first half since 1998 and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.44%.
On Saturday, as stock markets were closed, Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump, met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka and agreed to resume trade talks. They also agreed to hold off from any further extension of tariffs.
Oil prices
Oil prices edged lower on Friday ahead of a meeting between oil producers this week.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and some non-members including Russia, known as OPEC+, will hold meetings on July 1-2 in Vienna to decide whether to extend supply cuts.
Brent August crude LCOc1 futures settled unchanged at $66.55 a barrel on Friday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures lost 96 cents to settle at $58.47 a barrel.
“You had a wave of selling come in advance of the OPEC and non-OPEC meeting on Monday, where it’s fully expected that they’re going to rollover production cuts,” Andrew Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston, told Reuters.
“But ironically they’re doing that because they’re seeing the oil demand growth forecast get revised downward and that’s contributing to a sense that we remain oversupplied.”
Middle East markets
Stock markets in the region rose on Thursday ahead of the G20 summit.
Saudi's stock market index was up 1.3%, with Arab National Bank rising 7% and Al Rajhi Bank up 1.9%.
In Dubai, the index edged up 0.1% with Commercial Bank of Dubai jumping 5.6% and telecommunications operator Du adding 1%.
The Abu Dhabi index rose 0.7%, lifted by banks. First Abu Dhabi Bank was up 0.8% and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank gained 1.1%.
Qatar's index traded 0.3% higher, supported by a 1% rise in petrochemical maker Industries Qatar and a 1.1% gain in Commercial Bank of Qatar. Industries Qatar split its stock on Wednesday.
Egypt’s EGX30 gained 0.7%, Bahrain’s index added 0.5% while Kuwait’s premier market index edged 0.2% higher and Oman’s index added 0.4%.
Currencies
The dollar was mainly unchanged on Friday.
The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was at 96.15.
Precious metals
Gold prices gained on Friday.
Spot gold was up 0.4% at $1,414.24 per ounce at 1133 GMT.
U.S. gold futures climbed 0.4% to $1,417.40.
Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Michael Fahy)
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