AFP, Hong Kong :
Fresh fears of a trade war between the world’s top two economies sent most Asian markets tumbling on Monday after the United States and China imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on billions of dollars of imports.
Energy firms were among the biggest losers as oil prices plunged ahead of a key OPEC meeting, where Saudi Arabia and Russia are expected to lift a two-year-old production cap.
Donald Trump’s decision to hit China with 25 percent levies was met with an immediate retaliation, moving the two closer to a trade war that could potentially batter the global economy.
The announcement came despite weeks of talks between the two sides.
The developments sent stocks into the red across Europe and on Wall Street, and Asian investors followed suit on Monday.
Tokyo ended 0.8 percent down, while Singapore sank more than one percent, Seoul dropped 1.3 percent and Manila tumbled 2.5 percent.
Wellington and Bangkok were both down but Sydney eked out a 0.2 percent gain.
Hong Kong and Shanghai were closed for public holidays.
“Many folks will tell you this isn’t a trade war. But when one side whacks a bunch of tariffs and the other side retaliates with its own set of tariffs against the other side, that looks very much to me like the battle has been joined,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at AxiTrader.
“Whether it escalates is a different question.”
With traders fleeing to safer assets, the yen rose against the dollar, while the greenback rallied against most high-yielding currencies with the Australian dollar, South Korean won and Mexican peso all sharply down.
After losing around four percent last week, oil plunged again Monday as investors fret over Russia and Saudi Arabia’s expected move to ramp up output at an OPEC meeting that starts Friday.
Fresh fears of a trade war between the world’s top two economies sent most Asian markets tumbling on Monday after the United States and China imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on billions of dollars of imports.
Energy firms were among the biggest losers as oil prices plunged ahead of a key OPEC meeting, where Saudi Arabia and Russia are expected to lift a two-year-old production cap.
Donald Trump’s decision to hit China with 25 percent levies was met with an immediate retaliation, moving the two closer to a trade war that could potentially batter the global economy.
The announcement came despite weeks of talks between the two sides.
The developments sent stocks into the red across Europe and on Wall Street, and Asian investors followed suit on Monday.
Tokyo ended 0.8 percent down, while Singapore sank more than one percent, Seoul dropped 1.3 percent and Manila tumbled 2.5 percent.
Wellington and Bangkok were both down but Sydney eked out a 0.2 percent gain.
Hong Kong and Shanghai were closed for public holidays.
“Many folks will tell you this isn’t a trade war. But when one side whacks a bunch of tariffs and the other side retaliates with its own set of tariffs against the other side, that looks very much to me like the battle has been joined,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at AxiTrader.
“Whether it escalates is a different question.”
With traders fleeing to safer assets, the yen rose against the dollar, while the greenback rallied against most high-yielding currencies with the Australian dollar, South Korean won and Mexican peso all sharply down.
After losing around four percent last week, oil plunged again Monday as investors fret over Russia and Saudi Arabia’s expected move to ramp up output at an OPEC meeting that starts Friday.
