“I look forward to a positive and constructive meeting with President Trump at the White House,” Albanese said on Sunday before heading to the US, where he will remain until Tuesday. “Our meeting is an important opportunity to consolidate and strengthen the Australia-US relationship.”
On Wall Street on Friday, a jittery week for US stocks ended on a positive note as the White House soothed anxiety around trade tensions while regional banks rebounded. The S&P 500 rose 0.5 per cent, as did the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq composite. Bonds, gold and silver fell.
Indexes had careened through several jarring swings over the week as worries built about the financial health of America’s small and midsized banks, as well as the souring trade relationship between the US and China.
However, Friday’s bounce sent the S&P 500 to its best week since August, with Trump expressing optimism that talks with Chinese officials could yield an agreement to defuse the tariff spat between the world’s two biggest economies. A batch of solid results from various regional lenders lifted the banking industry after a rout triggered by concern over credit quality in the economy.
