Recession fears “fading” in US but China's exports fall

Markets were mostly lower on Monday.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3 percent and the STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.2 percent but the Nikkei 225 rose 0.3 percent.

Friday's strong US employment report lost some of its impact on the market despite relieving some recession fears.

“The recession fears that pervaded much of the year are fading, replaced by a sense that economic indicators are bottoming,” wrote JPMorgan & Co. analysts in their 2020 equity outlook released on Monday.

However, with the 15 December deadline for the imposition of additional US import duties on Chinese goods looming, investors remained focused on trade issues.

Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at SlateStone Wealth, said there is “a lot of uncertainty” but “people are not running for the hills”.

Still, the impact of the US-China trade war was noticeable on Monday, at least on China, the latter reporting that exports fell 1.1 percent in November from a year earlier, with shipments to the US falling 23 percent.