Global markets are finally getting spooked by Trump's trade war
- Global markets are once again worried about the impact of Trump's trade war.
- Chinese stocks dropped sharply overnight, with losses then spreading to Europe.
- Major indexes on the continent are seeing losses of more than 1%.
- US Futures are also pointing lower, with the Nasdaq set to lose 1% at the opening bell.
- You can follow global market developments at Markets Insider.
The escalation of trade tensions between the US, China, and numerous other major economies, is having a significant negative impact on financial markets across the world on Wednesday, with China's stock market bearing the brunt of the pain.
China's benchmark share index, the Shanghai Composite, dropped 1.1% on Wednesday - leaving it nursing losses of 22% from its most recent high, extending the bear market it entered at the beginning of the week. Bear markets are characterised by a fall of 20% or more from a high.
Negative sentiment in Asia overnight - which also saw Hong Kong's Hang Seng drop 1.7%, and the Shenzhen Composite fall 1.8% - has spread to Europe, and in the first hour of trading all major continental European bourses are seeing big losses.
Here's the scoreboard as of just before 9.00 a.m. BST (4.00 a.m. ET):
- Germany's DAX - down 0.78% to 12,139 points
- France's CAC 40 - down 0.46% to 5,256 points
- Italy's FTSE MIB - down 1.1% to 21,172 points
- Spain's IBEX 35 - down 1.08% to 9,533 points
- Britain's FTSE 100 - down 0.15% to 7,526 points
After initially slumping when Trump first announced plans to levy tariffs against trading partners like China and the EU, markets bounced back - reflecting a belief that the conflict was unlikely to escalate further. Now, however, it appears Trump is committed to his tariff agenda, and it has markets worried.
US futures are also significantly lower on Wednesday, with the derivatives markets pointing to a more than 1% loss for the Nasdaq at the opening bell, and falls of around 0.8% for both the S&P 500, and the Dow Jones.
"Whatever flaccid growth the markets managed on Tuesday was largely lost after the bell, the ongoing trade war concerns continuing to weigh on investors' minds," Connor Campbell, analyst at spread betting firm Spreadex said in a morning email.
For China in particular, there is an ongoing double whammy of bad news. As well as Chinese stocks falling into a bear market, the country is also witnessing a major slide in the price of its currency, the yuan, which overnight fell to its lowest level in more than six months.
The USD/CNH, or the US dollar versus the offshore traded yuan, hit a high of 6.6105 earlier, leaving it at the highest level since December 20 last year.
An increase indicates the US dollar is strengthening against the yuan.
Along with escalating trade tensions between the United States and China, the yuan has been under pressure in recent months from a softening in Chinese economic data as well as divergent monetary policy settings between the PBOC and US Federal Reserve.