Asian Stock Markets Plunge; Similar Turbulence Due In US, Europe

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

HONG KONG/NEW YORK/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Asia’s stock markets tumbled, and the S&P 500 Futures, which indicate future values of U.S. traded stocks, dropped 3 percent Monday as there was no indication that U.S. President Donald J. Trump would be prepared to avoid a global trade war over his announced tariffs.

With the S&P 500 Futures dropping over 3 percent, the Nikkei index in Tokyo slid 6 percent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index tumbled as much as 7.9 percent on an intraday basis, the most since October 2008, after Trump struck a defiant tone on his tariff policy.

After being closed Friday for a holiday, a key gauge of Chinese stocks in Hong Kong dropped more than 9 percent. The yen surged as investors fled to safer havens.

Similar turbulence was due in European stock markets.

Oil dived 4 percent on Monday as the risk of a global recession mounted after gold reached record highs.

The major stock indexes plunged Monday as U.S. President Trump showed no sign of backing away from his sweeping tariff plans, despite growing concerns even within the Republican party about the impact this could have on pensions and consumers. And investors bet the mounting risk of a recession could see the U.S. Federal Reserve cutting rates as early as May.

“Futures markets moved swiftly to price in almost five quarter-point cuts in U.S. rates this year, pulling Treasury yields down sharply and hampering the dollar on safe-havens,” Reuters news agency observed. Similar stock market turbulence was due in Europe when markets opened there.

MORE CARNAGE

The carnage came as Trump told reporters that investors would have “to take their medicine” and he would not do a deal with China until the U.S. trade deficit was sorted out. Beijing declared the markets had spoken on their retaliation plans.

“The only real circuit breaker is President Trump’s iPhone, and he is showing little sign that the market selloff is bothering him enough to reconsider a policy stance he has believed in for decades,” said Sean Callow, a senior FX analyst at ITC Markets in Sydney.

Ironically, Trump had boasted about the impact his policies had on rising markets in the past.

However, with stocks nearing crash markets, he appeared less inclined to focus on the more than $11 trillion loss in global stock value since his inauguration as America’s 47th president in January.

The U.S. president even told reporters on Sunday evening to “forget markets for a second.” “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” Trump said.

It was unclear how long his supporters would be ready to wait for the clouds to disappear over the financial markets. Tens of thousands of people protested against Trump policies over the weekend in Washington D.C. and other cities. Some 60 percent of Americans have investments in the stock market, according to official data.

Latest Worthy News