RIYADH: Global stock markets held largely steady on Tuesday as top US and Russian diplomats held their first high-level discussions since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The talks, which excluded Europe and Ukraine, ended with Moscow and Washington agreeing to appoint teams to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war.
“Donald Trump continues to be the dominant force for financial markets,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.
“Trump has ripped up the playbook when it comes to dealing with Russia, and the markets are keeping the faith with the US President for now,” she added.
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Investors are also reasonably confident about the economic outlook, said CMC Markets analyst Konstantin Oldenburger.
“There seems to be a widespread belief that a global recession will not occur and that the trade war is merely a ‘residual risk’,” he said in a note to clients, pointing out that cash reserves of funds and asset managers have fallen to their lowest levels since 2010.
Europe’s main markets were flat or edged higher, with Frankfurt’s DAX index striking another all-time high as elections approach, with investors hoping a ruling coalition better able to act will emerge.
Defence stocks mostly added to gains after having soared the previous day as European leaders held an informal summit to discuss Ukraine and signalled more financial and military support ahead.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said her government would announce plans later Wednesday for a “massive” rearming of Denmark’s military due to the growing threat posed by Russia.
Wall Street was largely steady as traders came back from a three-day holiday weekend, with the S&P 500 flirting with a record high.
“Fittingly, gains in the mega-cap stocks, and AI enthusiasm following xAI’s release of its Grok 3 model, are among the primary factors for the upside bias,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.
Shares in struggling chipmaker Intel rose around nine percent at the start of trading following reports that rivals Broadcom and TSMC could buy parts of its business.
Over in Asia, Hong Kong’s stock market soared Tuesday, thanks to a recovery in Chinese tech stocks.
That came after a meeting between President Xi Jinping and China’s top business leaders fanned hopes that a long-running crackdown on the private sector is coming to an end.
Since taking the helm, Xi has strengthened the role of state enterprises in the world’s second-largest economy and waged crackdowns on some areas of the private sector.