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Global equity markets rose on Tuesday as U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated the United States is close to signing a trade deal with China but offered no new details.

Markets had been on edge about Trump’s highly anticipated remarks to The Economic Club of New York, but barely moved after the speech, which contained no major policy announcements.

Trump touted his administration’s economic record in a campaign-style speech but did not announce a venue or date for signing a trade deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping as rumors had suggested he might.

Canada’s main stock index reached a record high close even as North American stock markets were relatively flat amid a lack of news on trade talks between the world’s largest economies.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 26.55 points, or 0.16 per cent, at 16,909.38, , beating the high set in late September.

Six of the index’s 11 major sectors were higher, led by a 0.7-per-cent rise in the materials sector.

Leading the index were Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd., up 6.1 per cent, Semafo Inc., up 4.6 per cent, and Exchange Income Corp., higher by 4.5 per cent.

Lagging shares were Hudbay Minerals Inc., down 9.1 per cent, Bombardier Inc., down 5.8 per cent, and Intertape Polymer Group Inc., lower by 5.5 per cent.

Rising technology shares helped Wall Street hit record highs while European shares edged back toward four-year highs. MSCI’s gauge of worldwide equity performance climbed to almost 1 per cent shy of a record peak set in January 2018, before paring gains.

Trade-sensitive chipmakers helped pushed Europe’s STOXX 600 up 0.38 per cent as the Philadelphia semiconductor index rose almost 1 per cent but then pared gains on to trade 0.3 per cent higher.

Overnight in Asia, MSCI’s broadest measure of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 0.5 per cent while Japan’s Nikkei ended 0.8 per cent higher.

Greg Anderson, global head of foreign exchange strategy at BMO Capital Markets, said nothing new was announced in Trump’s speech.

“The only thing that’s maybe new is that he did not announce a date and a time for a signing ceremony. Where markets had been hoping for that, those hopes were dashed,” Anderson said.

Markets have been focused on a U.S.-China trade deal but improving economic data has provided upside too, said Candice Bangsund, a global asset allocation strategist at Fiera Capital in Montreal.

“There’s been so much pessimism on the state of the global economy that earnings or fundamentals matter very little when it comes to equity gains this year,” Bangsund said.

“Going forward, we expect that fundamentals should prevail. That’s going to drive the next up leg.”

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.12 per cent. In Europe, the FTSEurofirst 3000 index of leading regional shares closed up 0.42 per cent.

In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.37 points, or 0 per cent, to 27,691.86, the S&P 500 gained 4.91 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 3,091.92 and the Nasdaq Composite added 21.81 points, or 0.26 per cent, to 8,486.09.

Investors were also anxious about Hong Kong after a violent escalation of protests knocked 3 per cent off the key Hang Seng index and nearly 2 per cent off Asia-exposed banks HSBC and StanChart in recent days.

Hong Kong’s embattled leader Carrie Lam on Tuesday said protesters who were trying to “paralyze” the city were extremely selfish and hoped all universities and schools would urge students not to participate in violence.

U.S. Treasury yields held below three-month highs after Trump’s speech.

A holiday in the United States had closed the Treasury market on Monday but there was an early milestone on Tuesday as the gap between short-term 3-month and longer-term 10-year yields hit the widest level of the year so far.

That steepening of the yield curve adds to signs that fears of recession were receding.

“Recession fears are misplaced. We are not ripe for an extended bear market,” Bangsund said.

Treasury yields on 10-year notes fell to 1.9173 per cent. European yields were a touch higher.

The dollar was little changed after Trump spoke, remaining mostly higher on the day.

The dollar index rose 0.14 per cent, with the euro down 0.24 per cent to $1.1006. The Japanese yen strengthened 0.05 per cent versus the greenback at 109.01 per dollar.

Gold slipped to its lowest in more than three months on increased appetite for riskier assets.

U.S. gold futures settled down 0.2 per cent at $1,453.70 per ounce.

Oil prices ended Tuesday little changed after paring gains of about 1 per cent following Trump’s speech.

Concerns about slower economic growth and oil demand due to the fallout from the 16-month trade dispute between the world’s two biggest economies have weighed on crude futures.

Brent crude futures ended the session down 12 cents at $62.06 a barrel after trading between $62.85 and $61.82. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled down 6 cents at $56.80 a barrel.

Prices pared earlier gains after Trump’s remarks to a lunch gathering of The Economic Club of New York included mixed messages about U.S.-China trade talks and excluded specifics about any progress in negotiations.

Trump said U.S. and Chinese negotiators were “close” to a “phase one” trade deal, but largely repeated well-worn rhetoric about China’s “cheating” on trade.

Earlier, prices received support from data that showed crude inventories at Cushing, the delivery point for WTI, fell by about 1.2 million barrels in the week to Nov. 8, traders said, citing market intelligence firm Genscape.

Reuters and The Canadian Press

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