(Updates to US late afternoon)
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Stocks add to global selloff after China retaliates
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Traders ramp up bets on Fed, BoE, ECB rate cuts
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Live coverage of the latest developments on
tariffs
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, April 4 (Reuters) - Global stock markets and
oil prices tumbled again on Friday as China struck back against
U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and worries mounted about
a prolonged global trade war.
The Nasdaq Composite was headed toward a bear market, while
the pan-European STOXX 600 index confirmed it was in a
correction as the trade war fanned global recession concerns.
Since Trump unveiled his tariffs late on Wednesday, S&P 500
companies have lost over $4 trillion in stock market value, a
record two-day decline for the benchmark, exceeding a two-day
loss of $3.3 trillion in March 2020, when the pandemic ripped
across global markets, according to LSEG data compiled by
Reuters.
Some investors fled to the safety of government bonds, while
the dollar recovered from Thursday's weakness.
Responding to Trump's tariffs, China on Friday said it would
impose additional levies of 34% on American goods, confirming
investor fears that a full-blown global trade war is under way.
Trump slapped a 10% tariff on most U.S. imports and much
higher levies on dozens of countries, erecting the steepest
trade barriers in more than 100 years.
"It's sort of the worst fears of where the tariff program
was headed," said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane
Investments, a family investment office in New Vernon, New
Jersey.
"For those investors who were sure it was just a
negotiation - while that still may be true at some point - it's
getting awfully deeper into the detail and more dangerous for
companies."
Data showing the U.S. economy added far more jobs than
expected in March did little to brighten the mood.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in remarks at a
business journalists' conference in Arlington, Virginia, that
Trump's new tariffs are "larger than expected" and the economic
fallout, including higher inflation and slower growth, likely
will be as well.
He also said the U.S. central bank does not have a
prediction of a downturn in its outlook but he recognized
private-sector forecasters are shifting on that front.
"I think (Powell's) comments will be disappointing for those
who believe that the Fed is going to step in anytime soon," said
Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital
Securities in New York.
Companies with exposure to China also fell. Apple ( AAPL ),
Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Amazon.com ( AMZN ) were all down sharply.
Bank shares dropped across the globe as fears of a recession
increased. The S&P 500 financial index was down 6.8%,
while energy was down more than 8% as oil prices fell.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,953.69
points, or 4.78%, to 38,601.34, the S&P 500 lost 288.97
points, or 5.35%, to 5,107.55 and the Nasdaq Composite
fell 871.79 points, or 5.25%, to 15,678.81.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe
dropped 41.22 points, or 5.1%, to 766.42.
The pan-European STOXX index closed 5.1% lower, its
biggest daily loss since the COVID-19-fuelled selloff in 2020.
The index fell nearly 12% from its March 3 all-time closing
high, confirming it was in correction territory.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 2.8% overnight for a second
session running.
Brent crude futures fell 6.5% to settle at $65.58.
U.S. crude futures lost 7.4% to settle at $61.99, the
lowest since April 2021.
The U.S. dollar recovered against the euro and yen, with
Powell signalling a cautious tone on future easing. The dollar
index was last up 0.9% after its biggest fall since
November 2022 on Thursday.
The euro was down 0.81% at $1.096. Against the
Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.58% to 146.9.
After years of huge flows into U.S. stocks and a booming
American economy, investors are grappling with where to put
their cash.
That helped drive a powerful rush towards government bond
markets. The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note
fell 12.2 basis points to 3.933% after falling to
a six-month low of 3.86%. Yields move inversely to prices.
The German 10-year bond yield, the benchmark for
the euro zone bloc, fell as much as 17 bps during the day.
Money market futures were pricing in cumulative rate cuts of
110 basis points from the Fed by the end of this year, compared
with about 75 bps a week earlier.
Traders increased their bets on Bank of England and European
Central Bank reductions too.
"A lot of investors I've talked to have just said in this
kind of environment, let's go to cash and just wait it out,"
Meckler said.