As the United States and Mexico work towards a trade agreement that, in theory, replaces NAFTA, the Asian markets are rising. Both the United States and Asia have been in a bull market since Monday afternoon and the upward trend continued into Tuesday evening.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 stayed relatively flat, ending the day at 22,813.47. Japan’s shipping sector increased by 2.3%.
South Korea’s Kospi increased 0.17% and ended the day at 2,303.12. Samsung Electronics increased by an impressive 0.54%.
Australia’s ASX 200 ended up 0.57% and closed at 6,304.7. The increase comes after the political dilemma last week. Blackmores’ stock increased 11.53% following the company’s public earnings statement of an 18.6% rise.
Stateside, the SP 500 increased 0.8% to 2,896.74, another index record. The NASDAQ increased 0.9% to 8,017.90. Another day of records.
President Donald Trump tweeted:
“NASDAQ has just gone above 8000 for the first time in history!”
The bull markets come amidst the trade negotiations between the US and Mexico. Trump has criticized NAFTA throughout his entire political career and he believes that the new US-Mexico trade agreements will replace the policy he has called “a bad joke”.
The president of the National Association of Manufacturers, Jay Timmons, has issued the following statement about where Canada sits in the US-Mexico situation:
“Because of the massive amount of movement of goods between the three countries and the integration of operations which make manufacturing in our country more competitive, it is imperative that a trilateral agreement be inked.”
Trump seems to be toying with the idea that Canada may not fit into his vision of the future of North American trade.
Robert Lighthizer, the United States trade representative, issued the following statement regarding Canada’s involvement:
“Ideally we’ll have the Canadians involved. If we don’t have Canada involved, we will notify that we have a bilateral agreement that Canada is welcome to join.”
While the countries get closer to a new trade agreement, the Asian and US markets continue to rise.
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