Steadier Yuan Sees Wall Street Back In Black

US markets have bounced back from a short losing streak as China moved to stabilise the yuan amid its escalating trade war with the US .

Analysts pointed to steps taken by the Chinese central bank to boost the yuan, which slid below a key benchmark on Monday in a move seen as part of Beijing's rebuttal to President Donald Trump's latest tariff announcement.

But the yuan steadied Tuesday while People's Bank of China Governor Yi Gang vowed that China would not engage in a competitive devaluation in the trade war. The move came after the US Treasury Department late Monday formally designated China a "currency manipulator".

The Dow Jones rose 1.2 percent to 26,029. The S&P 500 gained 1.3 percent to 2,881, while the Nasdaq climbed 1.4 percent to 7,933.The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2 percent to 26,029, ending a five-day slide.

The China move "calmed the currency market and we saw the equity market and the futures market start to turn positive," said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist of Prudential Financial.

However, a stock market note from Charles Schwab said while this boosted sentiment to an extent, "heightened uncertainty continued to hamper sentiment".

Analysts say the recent spate of new actions by Beijing and Washington in the months-long trade war has dimmed hopes for a deal in the near-term, with some now seeing low odds of an agreement before the 2020 US presidential election.

Among individual companies, MasterCard rose 3.0 percent after agreeing to acquire Danish payment service company Nets' account-to-account payment business for 2.85 billion euros (US$3.19 billion). (AFP)