Stocks pause as focus shifts to trade talks

Last week’s stock market rally stemmed from the PBOC’s RRR cut, outstanding US employment numbers and Powell’s comments on patience and ability to shift stance quickly.  Soothing comments from the Fed were the primary driver for equities, but that momentum is stalling at current levels as the focus shifts back to trade wars.

Mergers and acquisitions are a big theme this week as we are seeing continued consolidation in the healthcare sector.  Early in NY, Lilly announced a definitive agreement to acquire Loxo Oncology for $235.00 per share in cash, or approximately $8.0 billion.  The deal follows last week’s new Bristol Meyers deal to buy Celgene in a $74 billion dollar, one of the top three healthcare M&A statements ever.  The Bristol-Meyers/Celgene deal was the first M&A domino of the year and we could continue speculative bets on the next major transformational deal to come into play.

This week’s brief two-day of talks were suppose to be led by low-ranking officials, but Chinese Vice Premier Liu He surprised the Beijing meeting and attended. The news of his presence could be positive and a sign that China is looking to move talks forward.  The path for further progress is likely to be bumpy as China, as expectations are low for China to deliver on specific details and follow through on implementing promises.

The S&P 500 is trading little changed and yields have come down from last week’s surge.  The 10-year yield on US Treasuries is down 2.1bps to 2.646%.  The dollar is softer against the majors, with the euro and sterling outperforming.

 

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Ed Moya

Ed Moya

Contributing Author at OANDA
With more than 20 years’ trading experience, Ed Moya was a Senior Market Analyst with OANDA for the Americas from November 2018 to November 2023. His particular expertise lies across a wide range of asset classes including FX, commodities, fixed income, stocks and cryptocurrencies. Over the course of his career, Ed has worked with some of the leading forex brokerages, research teams and news departments on Wall Street including Global Forex Trading, FX Solutions and Trading Advantage. Prior to OANDA he worked with TradeTheNews.com, where he provided market analysis on economic data and corporate news. Based in New York, Ed is a regular guest on several major financial television networks including CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Yahoo! Finance Live, Fox Business, cheddar news, and CoinDesk TV. His views are trusted by the world’s most respected global newswires including Reuters, Bloomberg and the Associated Press, and he is regularly quoted in leading publications such as MSN, MarketWatch, Forbes, Seeking Alpha, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Ed holds a BA in Economics from Rutgers University.