U.S. stocks began Monday trading with another plunge, continuing the global rout that tumbled Asian and European markets amid growing uncertainty over the unfolding trade war.
President Trump, who rolled out a sweeping trade tariff plan last week, has indicated that he would continue to go ahead with the baseline and reciprocal tariffs on trading partners. China and Europe have said they would counter Washington’s move with their own safeguarding steps.
The sell-off trends saw the S&P 500 slide down 0.2% at the end of a day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 349 points, or 0.9%, and the Nasdaq composite crawled up by 0.1% after a volatile day.
In Asia, the week began the new week with a nosediving stocks performances, Hong Kong registering the worst performance in the last 28 years at 13.2% spiral whereas Japan’s Nikkei index took an 8% beating.
Major European markets in Germany, France and Britain also opened under a cloud of uncertainty and tumbled.
President Donald Trump said he is not going to relent on his trade tariff hikes on worldwide imports while China accused the United States of harming the world economic prospects with Trump’s America First policy.
Monday’s stock rout follows Trump’s announcement last week that the U.S. would impose a 10 % baseline tax on all imports into the country. He also unveiled a 34 % tariff on Chinese imports into the United States, the world’s largest economy whose consumers drive the global economy. Additionally, reciprocal taxes have been imposed on countries trading with the United States.
Beijing, the world’s second largest economy, retaliated with a matching measure for measure, also levying a 34 % duty on all American imports into China.
In the United States, experts fear the Asian and European market losses would continue the worst decline the stocks experienced last week since the pandemic fall five years ago. On Friday the S&P 500 lost 6% and the Dow dropped 5.5% while the Nasdaq composite tumbled by 3.8%.
Meanwhile, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One late Sunday that he didnot he does not want a global market plunge. Yet, he appeared to be unmoved by the the massive sell-offs globally. He remarked that “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
On Monday China likened Trump’s tariff moves to practicing protectionism, and called for concrete steps to resolve the tariff standoff.
A Foreign Ministry spokesperson in Beijing Lin Jian warned of negative impact the tariffs would have for the world economic growth.
In Washington, Trump’s aides have strongly defended the tariff moves as a way to correct the wrongs in global trade that harmed American interest and local workers. The White House officials say several dozen countries have approached the administration to sort out the tariff conflict.
Trump has said his “Liberation Day” tariff measures, announced on April 2, would fix the wrongs in the global trade and bring massive manufacturing back to the United States.
This report was updated at 6: 55 p.m. Monday (EST).
