AFP, Hong Kong :
Asian markets mostly sank Thursday after a below-par US jobs report compounded worries about the world’s top economy, while the WTO fanned fresh trade war fears by allowing Washington to impose tariffs on the European Union.
Investors tracked yet another plunge in Europe and on Wall Street – where all three main indexes fell more than one percent for a second day – and shifted into safer assets such as gold, which rose more than one percent.
On Wednesday, data from payrolls firm ADP showed US companies added far fewer jobs than expected last month, while August’s reading was also revised sharply lower. That followed news of the weakest US manufacturing conditions since 2009 at the height of the financial crisis.
The figures also come before the release of non-farm payrolls data Friday that are closely watched for a gauge on the health of the economy, with observers now fretting that a slowdown across the world could now be biting in the United States.
New York traders rushed for the exit, as did their European counterparts who were also hammered by fears Britain will leave the EU without a divorce deal, as well as increasingly bleak economic data in the region.
“The market was still digesting the weaker (factory) data and the implication for global growth then got whacked with the slide on the ADP data compounded by a catastrophic decline in US auto sales, which now raises more questions than answers about the resilience of the US consumer,” said Stephen Innes, Asia-Pacific market strategist at AxiTrader.
Hopes for a China-US trade breakthrough “could keep the risk-on light flickering, but the dreary economic data does perhaps suggest that traders could be better sellers in this risk-toxic environment”, he added.
Just as Washington and Beijing prepare for high-level trade talks this month, the World Trade Organization provided markets with a fresh headache by ruling that the EU had given illegal support to plane-maker Airbus, allowing the US to impose billions in tariffs on the bloc.
Asian markets mostly sank Thursday after a below-par US jobs report compounded worries about the world’s top economy, while the WTO fanned fresh trade war fears by allowing Washington to impose tariffs on the European Union.
Investors tracked yet another plunge in Europe and on Wall Street – where all three main indexes fell more than one percent for a second day – and shifted into safer assets such as gold, which rose more than one percent.
On Wednesday, data from payrolls firm ADP showed US companies added far fewer jobs than expected last month, while August’s reading was also revised sharply lower. That followed news of the weakest US manufacturing conditions since 2009 at the height of the financial crisis.
The figures also come before the release of non-farm payrolls data Friday that are closely watched for a gauge on the health of the economy, with observers now fretting that a slowdown across the world could now be biting in the United States.
New York traders rushed for the exit, as did their European counterparts who were also hammered by fears Britain will leave the EU without a divorce deal, as well as increasingly bleak economic data in the region.
“The market was still digesting the weaker (factory) data and the implication for global growth then got whacked with the slide on the ADP data compounded by a catastrophic decline in US auto sales, which now raises more questions than answers about the resilience of the US consumer,” said Stephen Innes, Asia-Pacific market strategist at AxiTrader.
Hopes for a China-US trade breakthrough “could keep the risk-on light flickering, but the dreary economic data does perhaps suggest that traders could be better sellers in this risk-toxic environment”, he added.
Just as Washington and Beijing prepare for high-level trade talks this month, the World Trade Organization provided markets with a fresh headache by ruling that the EU had given illegal support to plane-maker Airbus, allowing the US to impose billions in tariffs on the bloc.
