Global stocks fall: Latest customs conflicts are burdening markets

Global stocks fall: Latest customs conflicts are burdening markets

The global stock markets largely gave up on Monday, as the investors dealt with President Donald Trump's decision to double the tariffs to US steel imports. At the same time, the trade conflicts with China boiled up again.

market developments in Asia

In Asia, the Hang Seng Index closed in Hong Kong with a decline of 0.6%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia and Nikkei 225 in Japan recorded daily losses of 0.2% and 1.3%. The South Korean Kospi, on the other hand, closed with an increase of 0.1%.

stock markets in Europe and the USA

In Europe, the stock markets also opened in the minus. The Europe -wide Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell by 0.4% until 6:12 a.m., while the Dax in Germany and the CAC in France add 0.5% or 0.6%. The FTSE 100 in London remained stable at the same time.

The US futures also moved negatively: the futures of the S&P 500 fell 0.5% and the Dow by 0.4%. The technology -oriented NASDAQ Index dropped by 0.7%before the start of trading

Trump's customs policy and trade conflicts

Although Trump's customs plan last week on a Legal obstacle met again on Friday the conflict in Commercial war. He accused China of having violated a trade agreement agreed last month that provided a drastic reduction in tariffs to mutual import goods. In response to this, Beijing accused the United States on Monday to "provoke new economic and trade friction".

to increase the tariffs to US steel imports to 50%-a doubling of the current sentence-to protect steel workers in the USA. Higher customs should come into force on Wednesday. Trump said: "With 25%, trading partners can get over it more or less. With 50%, nobody will get over it."

reactions of the European Union

The European Union announced on Saturday that it would react unless "mutually acceptable solution" is found with Washington. Olof Gill, the spokesman for the European Commission for Trade, explained: "Without an agreement, both existing and additional EU measures will automatically come into force on July 14th-or earlier if the circumstances require it."

Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management, told CNN and said that investors are increasingly assuming that the United States will quickly refrain from new customs threats. "However, the market participants seem to be less safe in terms of steel," he added. He explained that the steel tariffs were not endangered by the last US court judgment, which had temporarily blocked a large part of Trump's global tariffs.

effects on the global markets

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, found that the markets fell on Monday because "new cracks open in the global trade war". She pointed out that the steel and aluminum tariffs threatened by Trump, as well as the escalating tensions between the USA and China, mean "large setbacks for steel manufacturers worldwide".

"Wall Street begins the week with a dampening tone," she added, noticing that the new fuss threats from Trump are interpreted as a risk of inflation in the United States. "This could drive up the costs for manufacturers and the construction industry."

The USA is the world's largest steel importer according to US International Trade Administration . Last year Washington imported 26.2 million metric tons of steel from 79 countries and territories.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at the trading platform IG, noticed that the market losses on Monday were "relatively reluctant" because investors expect Trump to resign from his new steel tariff threats. "Despite the hard rhetoric, the administration does not seem to have an appetite for the type of market fluctuations that would go hand in hand with a comprehensive trade war," he said.