Shares in the Asia Pacific region traded mixed on Monday, 29 April 2019, as investors struggled to track another record lead from Wall Street Friday that was fuelled by more strong earnings and better-than-expected US first-quarter GDP reading, while China-US trade talks come back into focus.
On the U.S.-China trade front, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in an interview that negotiations between the two economic powerhouses were "into the final laps," according to reports. Eyes now turn to Beijing where top US negotiators will return for another round of trade talks with their Chinese counterparts, with the White House saying issues to be covered include intellectual property, forced technology transfer, agriculture and enforcement. While the general consensus is for the two to eventually reach a deal to end their long-running trade war there are still a number of sticking points, and Mr Trump has warned he is willing to walk away from talks of he is not happy with their progress.
Shares of financials declined ahead of their earnings results this week. Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank were down in a range of 0.4% to 0.7%, while Westpac was up 0.1%.
Energy shares declined after US President Donald Trump pressured the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to raise crude production to ease petrol prices at the weekend. Santos was lower by almost 2%, while Oil Search and Woodside Petroleum were down more than 1% each.
Shares of major miners are mostly higher. Fortescue Metals rose almost 1% and BHP Group added 0.3%, while Rio Tinto was down 0.3%.
Shares of Coles Group rose 0.2% after the supermarket giant reported a 2.1% increase in food and liquor sales for the third quarter compared to the year-ago period.
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CURRENCY: The Australian dollar was higher against the U.S. dollar on Monday. The Australian dollar was quoted at 70.59 US cents, up from 70.25 on Friday.
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