Trade worries dent stocks, yuan steadies
US LISTS $16B IN PRODUCTS THAT IT WILL TARGET WITH TARIFFS
World stocks were flat yesterday amid growing anxiety ahead of Washington’s end of week deadline to impose tariffs on Chinese imports, while the yuan steadied after China’s central bank acted to calm investors.
The MSCI All-Country World index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, was lower by less than 0.1 per cent on the day, recovering slightly from a 0.2 per cent fall earlier.
Washington has said it would implement tariffs on $34 billion (Dh125 billion) worth of Chinese imports tomorrow, and Beijing has promised to retaliate in kind on the same day. However, China’s finance ministry said it will “absolutely not” fire the first shot in a trade war with the United States and will not be the first to levy tariffs.
Concerns about the outbreak of a global trade war have, among other factors, prevented a sustained recovery in global stock markets since a violent sell-off knocked them off records highs in February.
The United States has listed another 284 product lines valued at $16 billion that it will target with tariffs, including semiconductors and a broad range of electronics.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was last down 0.1 per cent, see-sawing from positive to negative territory during the day. Germany’s exporter-heavy DAX fell half a per cent and Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.3 per cent.
Europe’s tech sector fell 1-1/2 per cent led by falls in chipmakers STMicro and Infineon, which were down by nearly 8 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively. MSCI’s broadest index of AsiaPacific shares outside Japan fell 0.25 per cent, a day after it hit a nine-month low. Japan’s Nikkei erased earlier losses to stand flat by late afternoon. Mainland Chinese shares dropped, with CSI300 Index off 0.7 per cent.
US markets were closed for US Independence Day.