(Updates prices throughout, adds details on Trump commentary on
China in paragraph 4)
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All major stock market indexes have had a strong month
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Crude and gold prices weaken
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Dollar on course for fifth straight month of losses
By Chibuike Oguh
NEW YORK, May 30 (Reuters) - Global stocks were down on
Friday but were set to notch a weekly gain as well as the
biggest monthly increase since late 2023 despite markets having
been roiled by uncertainty over the Trump administration's
tariff policies.
Sentiments were initially buoyed at the start of the week by
signs of an easing of trade tensions between the U.S. and
Europe, after President Donald Trump delayed planned tariffs on
imports from the EU. Investor focus then shifted to earnings of
artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia ( NVDA ), which later
reported better-than-expected results mid-week.
But markets were briefly shaken following an unexpected
ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade striking down
Trump's so-called Liberation Day tariffs, triggering a court
drama that saw an appellate court temporarily reinstate them.
Trump said on Friday that China had violated an agreement
with the U.S. to mutually roll back tariffs and trade
restrictions for critical minerals and issued a new veiled
threat to get tougher with Beijing.
"It's been quite a week," said Mark Malek, chief investment
officer at SiebertNXT. "Within four days we got a compressed
version of what we've had for the entire month, which is the tug
of war between forces that drove markets higher last year and
the prior year - that being AI and technology growth stocks -
and then this looming challenge we have with all these
administration tariffs."
On Wall Street, all three main indexes were trading lower on
the session, dragged by weaknesses in technology, energy and
consumer discretionary stocks. They were, however, set to end
the week and the month higher, with the benchmark S&P 500 index
poised to snap three straight months of declines.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.24% to
42,111.71, the S&P 500 fell 0.61% to 5,875.91 and the
Nasdaq Composite fell 1.16% to 18,952.93.
European shares finished higher by 0.14%, notching
a weekly gain and adding 4% for the month of May. MSCI's
broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
closed up 0.72% overnight, ending the week lower
but gaining nearly 5% for the month.
MSCI's main world index was down 0.37% to
877, but was on track to gain more than 1% for the week and more
than 5% in May - making it the biggest monthly gain since
November 2023.
Data showed on Friday that U.S. consumers had increased
their spending marginally in April, and the closely watched
Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index rose 0.1%
last month, in line with expectations.
Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell had their first
face-to-face meeting on Thursday. Afterwards a Fed statement
said: "Powell did not discuss his expectations for monetary
policy except to stress that the path of policy will depend
entirely on incoming economic information and what that means
for the outlook."
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell
0.8 basis points to 4.416%. The 30-year bond yield
rose 1.2 basis points to 4.9346% after reversing earlier losses.
The dollar was higher against major peers including the euro
and on track for a monthly gain against the Japanese yen. The
dollar weakened 0.23% to 143.83 against the yen, while
the euro was down 0.01% at $1.1364.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback
against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro,
rose 0.05% to 99.30. It was on track for the fifth straight
month of losses, weighed down by tariff uncertainty.
Oil prices fell and were headed for a second consecutive
weekly loss, as investors weigh a potentially larger OPEC+
output hike for July.
Brent crude futures fell 0.439% to $63.90 a barrel.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.53% to $60.63 a
barrel.
Gold prices slipped as the dollar edged higher. Spot gold
fell 0.7% to $3,292.54 an ounce. U.S. gold futures
fell 0.81% to $3,290.10 an ounce.