Crude prices and global equity markets fell yesterday after US President Donald Trump upped the ante in a trade dispute with China that added to investor jitters about the potential impact the heated rhetoric may have on the world economy.
MSCI’s gauge of worldwide stock indexes fell 0.65 per cent, and all three major US stock indexes slid more than 1 per cent, after Mr Trump threatened late Thursday to slap tariffs on an additional $100 billion of Chinese goods.
China warned it was fully prepared to respond with a “fierce counter strike” of fresh trade measures if the United States follows through on Mr Trump’s latest threat.
A weak US jobs report helped push US Treasury prices higher as the economy created the fewest jobs in six months in March, but the market’s main focus was on mounting US-China tensions.
“The jobs report is taking a back seat to the trade discussion and back and forth between the US and China,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston.
“Think of it as a game of poker and (Trump’s) raising the stakes a little bit,” he said.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index closed down a preliminary 0.55 per cent and MSCI’s gauge of emerging market stocks lost 0.40 per cent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 345.64 points, or 1.41 per cent, to 24,159.58. The S&P 500 lost 26.48 points, or 0.99 per cent, to 2,636.36 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 60.21 points, or 0.85 per cent, to 7,016.34.
Oil prices tumbled, with US crude falling about two per cent as China is a large importer of US crude oil.
“The possibility of an outright tariff war is conjuring up images of slowed economic growth that could curtail the strong oil demand that has helped to revive a strong pricing environment during the past couple of months,” Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates, said in a note.
Brent crude futures fell 98 cents to $67.35 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slid $1.21 to $62.33 a barrel.
US Treasury and eurozone government bond yields dipped as the trade spat raised the prospect of a full-blown trade war between the world’s two largest economies.