London — World stocks rose to a one-week high on cautious hopes for a rapprochement on trade between Beijing and Washington on Friday, though a perky dollar capped gains with China’s yuan softening again, on track for its weakest month in two-and-a-half decades.
The MSCI all-country world index climbed 0.3% but is on track for a near 3% decline in August — only the second month the benchmark has spent in the red this year. It is the weakest August for the index since 2015.European stocks on Friday extended the previous session’s gains, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 index up 0.3% to trade at a fresh one-month high.
US treasury yields nudged higher overnight, with the benchmark 10-year treasury climbing to 1.5349% from a three-year low of 1.443% touched earlier this week. It was still below two-year yields at 1.5419%. Such an inversion was last seen in 2007 and correctly foretold the great recession that followed a year later.
Recent economic data has also pointed to a global growth slowdown with business investment, manufacturing activity and exports all going south across major economies. The Australian dollar, often seen as a proxy bet on the Chinese economy, slipped towards a 10-year trough.