The United States and China began face-to-face trade negotiations in Washington D.C. Thursday for the first time in nearly two months. These negotiations are aimed at laying the groundwork for high-level talks in early October to see if there will either be a solution or further escalation of trade tariffs.
Here's how the U.S. Stock Market closed Thursday:
S&P 500 Index (SPY): +0.0020% or 0.060 points
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA): -0.19% or 52.29 points
Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ): +0.067% or 5.49 points
Following the Federal Reserve's interest rates cut yesterday, other foreign central banks delivered monetary policy decisions Thursday. The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.75% in a 9-0 vote. The bank warned about economic uncertainty around Brexit and how a no-deal Brexit would harm the growth of U.K. economies. The Bank of England's benchmark interest rate has remained unchanged for over a year.
The Bank of Japan has also left its rates unchanged Thursday, leaving its interest rate at -0.1%. Japanese central bankers have left the possibility open for further negative rate cuts.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECO) cut its global growth forecast for 2019 to the lowest level in a decade. The institution sees global growth slowing to 2.9% this year from last year's 3.6%. In a statement, OECO said that "escalating trade conflicts are taking an increasing toll on confidence and investment, adding to policy uncertainty, aggravating risk in financial markets and endangering already weak growth prospects worldwide.
In climate news, Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos announced today his plan called The Climate Pledge, where he challenged other companies to follow his example and get their net climate emissions to zero by 2040. The company also purchased 100,000 electric vans from the car manufacturer Rivian.
It will be interesting to see future companies initiatives to combat climate change under increasing global pressure and how that will affect global stocks and economies.
Tomorrow's market update will follow more U.S. and China trade news as the world's two largest economies continue to affect global monetary decisions.