LONDON: Stock markets and the dollar tumbled Thursday after President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs salvo against countries worldwide, fanning a trade war that many fear will spark recession and ramp up inflation.
The dollar slumped by as much as 2.6 percent versus the euro, its biggest intraday plunge in a decade, and suffered sharp losses also against the yen and British pound.
On stock markets, Wall Street’s main indices opened sharply lower, with the Nasdaq Composite falling more than four percent.
“The simultaneous decline in both stocks and the US dollar speaks volumes about investor confidence in Trump’s trade policy,“ said City Index and FOREX.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada.
Shares in apparel companies, which rely on cheap labour in factories abroad, with Nike sinking 11 percent and Gap shedding 15 percent.
Across the globe shares in major sectors including auto, luxury and banking, also took big hits.
Tokyo’s Nikkei briefly collapsed more than four percent and the Paris stock market led losses in Europe as it fell over three percent.
Oil prices plummeted around seven percent to under $70 per barrel as an economic downturn would hit demand.
Gold, a safe haven asset in times of uncertainty, hit a new peak of $3,167.84 an ounce.
Yields on government bonds, another haven investment, fell as investors fled risky assets.
– Renewed rate cuts? –
The panic came after the US president unveiled a blitz of harsher-than-expected levies aimed at countries he said had been “ripping off” the United States for years.
The measures included a 34 percent tariff on world number two economy China, 20 percent on the European Union and 24 percent on Japan.
A number of others will face specifically tailored tariff levels, and for the rest, Trump said he would impose a “baseline” tariff of 10 percent, including on Britain.
Auto tariffs of 25 percent meanwhile kicked in Thursday.
“Markets, unsurprisingly have reacted badly,“ noted Richard Carter, head of fixed interest research at wealth manager Quilter.
“(US) Treasury yields have fallen sharply, as investors take flight and look for safe haven assets.
“This would suggest the Federal Reserve will need to put additional rate cuts on the table to look to prevent recession being triggered, but should it face inflation rising too, it is in somewhat of a bind,“ Carter added.
As world markets tumbled Trump acknowledged the shock brought by his tariffs onslaught, but said the US economy would emerge “far stronger”.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to rule out the possibility of Trump pulling back any of the tariffs before they are implemented over the coming weekend.
“The president made it clear yesterday this is not a negotiation,“ she said on CNN.
Investors are bracing for retaliatory measures, but governments also left the door open for negotiations.
China vowed “countermeasures” and urged Washington to cancel the tariffs, while calling for dialogue.
Japan said the move was “extremely regrettable” and could contravene World Trade Organization rules, while Taiwan described the levies as “highly unreasonable”.
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc was “preparing for further countermeasures” but she emphasised it was “not too late to address concerns through negotiations”.
Tokyo’s stock market pared its hefty drop but still ended down 2.8 percent, while Hong Kong, Sydney, Seoul, Manila, Mumbai, Shanghai and Singapore also fell.
However, Wellington managed to eke out a small gain as New Zealand faced smaller tariffs.
Vietnam’s stock exchange dived 7.8 percent after the country was hit with levies of almost 50 percent.
– Key figures around 1330 GMT –
New York – Dow: DOWN 2.8 percent at 41,061.03 points
New York – S&P 500 : DOWN 3.4 percent at 7,614.51
New York – Dow: DOWN 4.6 percent at 16,790.53
Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 3.1 percent at 7,614.51
Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 2.3 percent at 21,866.48
London – FTSE 100: DOWN 1.6 percent at 8,467.28
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 2.8 percent at 34,735.93 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.5 percent at 22,849.81 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.2 percent at 3,342.01 (close)
Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1094 from $1.0814 on Wednesday
Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3173 from $1.2985
Dollar/yen: DOWN at 145.76 yen from 149.39 yen
Euro/pound: UP at 84.22 pence from 83.33 pence
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 7.2 percent at $66.57 per barrel
Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 6.7 percent at $69.96 per barrel
