Aug 26 (Lagos) - The US stock markets sold off 2% after President Trump tweeted and ordered that some major US corporations should not do business with China. That tweet was enough to cause carnage for investors in the stock markets world wide.
China retaliated to US tariffs and announced tariffs on $75 billion worth of US goods including autos. US retaliated to China's retaliation and increased tariffs from 25% to 30% on $250 billion of Chinese goods.
Fresh tariffs on $300 billion of remaining Chinese goods will go into effect on Sep 1 & Dec 15.
The G-7 summit in France is going on and President has warned France that any taxes on US tech companies could result in tariffs on French wines in USA. Climate change is also on the agenda with France inviting India via a special invite and expects support in backing climate change. However not much can be expected as the US refused to sign a declaration at last years G-7 and left abruptly.
On the positive side, the U.S. and Japan agreed in principle on a trade deal under which Japan will slash tariffs on U.S. beef, pork and other agricultural products, while continuing to face levies on its own auto exports.
Overall analysts expect to see continued market sell off this week based on trade wars and tariffs. US GDP for second quarter will be released this week and that could act as a catalyst for some recovery if it is good.
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.2% to $53.51 a barrel.Gold rose 0.9% to $1,541.35 an ounce.
Australian stock exchange is down 1.3% and has shed $26 billion today.
Japan's NEKKEI is down 2.4% today at the time of writing this article.
Nigerian stock exchange is known to often buck the trend and rise sharply when global stocks fall sharply. Lets hope for continuation of last week's late rally led by stocks like
MTNN &
NESTLE .
reporting for easykobo.com on Monday, Aug 26 2019 from Lagos, Nigeria