The rally seen in the global markets towards the end of last week left its place to negative pricing on the first trading day of the new week. US markets will be closed today.
Wall Street Stocks paused their 6-day bullish streak on Friday as a large number of options expired.
The S&P 500 lost 0.37 percent and the Nasdaq 100 lost 0.67 percent, while weekly gains were 2.58 percent and 3.82%, respectively.
Microsoft and Apple shares, which have closed at record levels in recent days, led the declines. Markets in the US will be closed for a public holiday today.
Stock indices in Asia are also declining. Tech stocks are leading the losses. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index, which rose 2.70 percent last week and carried the streak of the rise to the third week without interruption, is down 0.8 percent this morning.
Despite the news that Blinken’s China contacts were “candid”, the lack of a clear stimulus statement from an economy meeting held on Friday was effective in the decline in indices. Now all eyes will be on the Central Bank of China’s interest rate decision this week.
The Dollar Index is flat this morning after falling close to 1% over the past week.
High-level contact between the US and China
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken went to China at the weekend and had a 7.5-hour meeting with his counterpart, the China Gang. The highest-level visit from the USA to China in 5 years was postponed after the “spy balloon” tension between the two countries.
In the statements made by the two sides, it was stated that the meeting was “candid” towards the normalization of relations.
The US State Department said in a statement after the meeting that China responded positively to Blinken’s invitation to Washington.
According to the statement, Blinken emphasized the importance of “diplomacy and maintaining open communication channels on all issues in order to reduce the risks of misunderstanding” during the meeting.
Blinken also met with Wang Yi, the Communist Party’s senior foreign official, on Monday.
The most important development for the success of his visit to China will depend on whether Blinken will meet with President Xi Jinping. Although there is no Blinken-Shi meeting announced as of this morning, it is possible to be put on the schedule at the last minute.