Dollar holds near four-month highs, oil near multi-year top

Tuesday,   22-May-2018   09:11 AM (IST)

The dollar hovered near four-month highs on Tuesday on renewed optimism about global growth as the United States and China agreed to drop their tariff threats, while oil stayed at multi-year peaks over potential sanctions in Venezuela.Beijing and Washington both claimed victory on Monday as the world's two largest economies stepped back from the brink of a global trade war and agreed to hold further talks to boost U.S. exports to China.While the apparent truce over their trade disagreements bolstered sentiment on Wall Street, it failed to excite stock markets in Asia.Japan's Nikkei was barely changed while Australian shares fell 0.7 percent with energy shares the only bright spot on the index. Liquidity remains relatively thin due to holidays in South Korea and Hong Kong.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.1 percent.Despite two days of gains, the MSCI index was still well below an all-time peak of 617.12 hit in January. Stocks have generally been volatile this year on a combination of factors including the prospect of faster rate rises by the U.S. Federal Reserve and worries about a full-blown trade war.Wall Street indices rose overnight. The Dow jumped 1.2 percent, the S&P 500 gained 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq added 0.5 percent.