China’s Month-Long Winning Streak Ends Even as Asia Shares Advance

BEIJING, China – China’s almost two-month long winning run came to an end on Friday. The news was offset by reports of the country’s economic growth and the rest of Asian markets advancing in the wake of the just signed trade deal.

China’s blue-chip CSI 300 and its Shanghai Composite Index both ended their six-week winning streak this week. The former dropped 0.2% while the latter slid down by 0.5%. While the two benchmarks might have inched down, they performed admirably on this trading day. The CSI 300 inched up 0.1% to 4,154.85 while the Shanghai Composite also went up 0.1% to 3,075.50.

China also reported an economic growth of 6.1% for 2019. It was the superpower’s lowest performance since 1990, but analysts are quick to point out China’s improved manufacturing and economic activities in December. One economic report even stated that the country’s economy grew steadily in the last three months of 2019, with industries and investments rising sharply in December.

The recent signing of the US-China Phase One agreement and a trade surplus are expected to bolster investor and consumer confidence in China. Beijing is also expected to introduce more stimulus packages to boost growth.

It has already encouraged rallies on Wall Street, with the rest of the Asian markets following.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq Composite, and the S&P 500 all made new records on Thursday and prolonged the US’ promising start to 2020.

The Dow Jones went up 0.9% or 267.42 points to 29,297.64. And for the first time ever, the index closed higher than 29,000 on Wednesday. The Nasdaq advanced by 1.1% or 98.44 points to 9,357.13 while the S&P 500 gained 0.8% or 27.52 points to 3,316.81. It already broke records twice this week.

Wall Street also welcomed Alphabet into the esteemed $1 trillion club. It joins other esteemed companies like Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft.

The US dollar also gained strength as the week ended. It gained 110.22 over the yen on Friday. It was at 110.13 on Thursday.

In Asia, the Nikkei 225 went up by 0.5% to 24,055.77 while the Hang Seng Index of Hong Kong rose by one point to 2,259.16. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5% to 7,074.10.

China is expected to purchase more American goods and services under the terms of the trade deal. The US was supposed to roll-back tariffs levied on China, but that will apparently happen in the second phase of the deal.