The JSE is set for a blue Monday
Worse-than-expected Japanese GDP figures and a hard deadline for Chinese trade negotiations with the US set a sour tone in Asian markets
It is going to be a blue Monday for the JSE, judging by Asian markets, which were dragged down by worse-than-expected Japanese GDP figures and a US official saying the deadline with China to conclude trade negotiations is not flexible. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index was down 2.26%, rattled by Japan’s third-quarter GDP showing a contraction of 0.6%, double the expected 0.3% contraction. “Traders returned from the weekend to face a growing wall of worry, with the world’s largest economies — the US, China and Japan — all reporting weaker-than-expected data, which pointed to moderating activity,” Reuters said. US trade representative Robert Lighthizer said in a TV interview on Sunday that negotiations with China had to be concluded by March 1.
Since the Group of 20 (G20) meeting in Argentina ended on December 1, President Donald Trump and his advisers had given contradicting statements on when the 90-day negotiation period ended and if it was a hard deadline. In Hong Kong, Naspers’s mai...
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