China reports better-than-expected trade data

For the whole year of 2015, China’s foreign trade surplus widened to 3.69 trillion yuan, an increase of 56.7 per cent from a year earlier, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

China’s total trade fell in December but far less than expected, with exports outperforming many of its regional peers after the country let the yuan depreciate sharply, highlighting fears of a currency war among Asia’s trade-reliant economies. It fell as much as 0.64% to 6.6071 Thursday in the offshore market even after the central bank set the rate at which it trades in the domestic market stronger against the US dollar. Both of Japan’s benchmarks, the Nikkei 225 and Topics indexes gained about 2.9%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index and South Korea’s Kopi advanced by about 1.3%. Last year, Beijing’s exports were down on cooling demand and plummeting commodities prices.

The fresh figures also revealed that China’s imports from Africa tumbled by a staggering 38 percent throughout 2015, while exports to the continent rose by 4 percent previous year.

China’s main stock indexes, however, reversed direction early in the afternoon session, pulling the Shanghai Composite Index up 0.8 per cent on the previous day, while the CSI300 index was up 1 per cent.

Ma Jun, chief economist at the PBOC’s research bureau, said this week downward pressure on the yuan will ease after investors absorb a shift to valuing it versus a basket of currencies and away from linking it to the dollar. Asian stock markets were mixed Friday as investors were reluctant to return to risky assets despite ebbing fear about the Chinese…

WALL STREET: U.S. stocks finished higher with the biggest gain in over a month thanks to a rally in energy stocks. The panic seen in financial markets last week has receded since Chinese policy makers intervened to halt the yuan’s drop to a five-year low, reducing the risk of a currency war.

The Nasdaq rose 1.0 percent, the S&P 500 was up 0.8 percent and the Dow put on 0.7 percent, while London, Paris and Frankfurt all climbed one percent or more.

Exports were down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis in December in dollar terms, compared to forecasts for a drop of 8.0%. The kiwi fell to 06485 down by 30 points as the stress over falling oil prices weighed on the commodity linked currencies.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 2.6% to 20,221.82. “And the influences depend on the actual situation this year. we will continue to watch closely the changes in exchange rates and trade”.

Investors are struggling to predict how far and how fast Chinese authorities are willing to let the yuan fall.