NEW YORK – World stocks on Tuesday closed out a notably profitable year, with Wall Street recording its best annual performances since 2013, boosted by hopes for a trade deal between United States (US) and China.
New York rallied into the close, turning positive for the day and leaving the broad-based S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq up 29 percent and 35 percent respectively for 2019, the best showings in six years.
Key European markets showed increases of 25 percent or more for the year, partly thanks to late surges on receding recession fears and easing China-US trade war tensions.
Brexit-hit London, however, trailed its peers with a 12 percent annual rise, less than half the percentage increase managed by Paris, Frankfurt and Milan.
Earlier on Tuesday as US markets were about to open, President Donald Trump tweeted that a partial trade deal with China would be signed in Washington on Jan. 15, ending some of the uncertainty about efforts to cement the deal announced earlier this month.
Quincy Krosby of Prudential Financial said the US-China detente could help decide the direction of the global economy next year.
“Much of the enthusiasm in the market is based on the idea that global growth is going to begin to accelerate, albeit slowly,” she said. “The question will be: do we actually see positive growth, especially in China?”
Demand in China is crucial to chances for renewed growth in global trade, while the China trade agreement could see US corporations begin investing again after a year when corporate capital spending stagnated worryingly, according to Krosby. (Agence France-Presse)
