China Market falls on trade uncertainty, firm inflation

The Mainland China equity market closed steep lower on Monday, 11 November 2019, as uncertainty over whether the United States and China would end their bruising trade war after U.S. President Donald Trump said he has not agreed to roll back tariffs on China. Meanwhile, selloff pressure intensified on heightening concern about the effect of the trade war on the world's second-biggest economy after data over the weekend showed Chinese factory-gate prices dropping for a fourth month. At closing bell, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index declined 1.83%, or 54.21 points, to 2,909.98. The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, dropped 2.26%, or 37.23 points, to 1,611.44. The blue-chip CSI300 index sank 1.76%, or 70.03 points, to 3,902.98.

The U.S. President Donald Trump said there had been incorrect reporting about U.S. willingness to lift tariffs, which he said had brought in tens of billions of dollars for the United States and soon "literally hundreds of billions of dollars." The U.S. President Donald Trump comments worsened sentiment already hit by a similar statement from White House trade adviser Peter Navarro that the tariff rollback plan faced fierce internal opposition at the White House. That ended days of optimism as officials said tariffs would be rolled back and the deal would be signed soon.

Both sides are working to sign what the White House has described as a phase one trade deal. Officials from both countries said on Thursday that China and the United States had agreed to roll back tariffs already in place on each others' goods in a "phase one" trade deal to end a damaging trade war, but the idea has been met with stiff opposition within some quarters of the Trump administration.

China's producer-price index dropped deeper into deflationary territory in October, falling 1.6% in October from a year earlier, as the manufacturing sector weakened on declining demand and a knock from the Sino-U.S. tariff war. Producer prices fell 1.2% in September from a year earlier. In contrast, China's consumer-price index rose 3.8% in October from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Saturday, outpacing September's 3% reading, driven mostly by a surge in pork prices as African swine fever ravaged the country's hog herds.

CURRENCY NEWS: China's yuan eased against greenback on Monday despite the central bank set firmer mid-point fixing, as renewed uncertainty over a preliminary trade deal between Beijing and Washington. Prior to market opening, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) set the midpoint rate CNY=PBOC at 6.9933 per dollar, 12 pips firmer than Friday's fix of 6.9945. In the spot market, the onshore yuan CNY=CFXS opened at 6.9960 per dollar, briefly weakening past the key 7 mark before changing hands at 6.9995 at midday, 41 pips softer than the previous late session close.

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