[ad_1]
HONG KONG (AFP, REUTERS) – Asian markets suffered heavy losses on Monday (May 4), following a sell-off in New York after Donald Trump raised fears of a renewed trade war with China over his role in the pandemic. of coronavirus.
The affirmations of the president and secretary of State of EE. The US, Mike Pompeo, that the disease started in a laboratory in Wuhan and that those responsible should be held to account, overshadowed the slowdown in Covid-19 infections and deaths.
With China and Japan on vacation, Hong Kong led the selloff, falling 4.2 percent ahead of first-quarter economic data. After markets closed, the government announced that the economy suffered its worst quarter on record, contracting 8.9 percent from a year earlier when the pandemic hit a city already weakened by political unrest.
South Korea’s Kospi index fell 2.7 percent, and sentiment also took a beating from gloomy factories’ domestic readings.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index closed 2.3% lower in line with regional markets and ahead of its own factory data.
South Korea’s Kospi index fell 2.7 percent, and sentiment also took a beating from gloomy factories’ domestic readings.
Australia’s S & P / ASX 200 index rose 1.4 percent, boosted by gains in the healthcare sector and industrial stocks, while payment technology company Afterpay rose more than 35 percent after presenting Tencent China Holdings as a shareholder.
Losses across the region come as investors returned from a long weekend break and after the top three Wall Street indices sank between 2.6 and 3.2 percent, after enjoying their best month in decades. in April.
Trump suggested he could apply new tariffs to China for his handling of the virus outbreak, claiming he had seen evidence linking a Wuhan lab to the contagion. The warning fueled concerns of a return to trade stagnation between the world’s top two economies that hit world markets last year until a partial deal was reached in December.
It also occurs when Trump faces a tough fight to be re-elected in November with the economy in crisis and millions of Americans losing their jobs due to the virus crisis.
“President Trump beats the drums of the trade war again … and increases the odds of a significant volatility risk event, as all roads lead back to trade and tariffs,” said Stephen Innes of AxiCorp.
He added that “although the market is already taking into account a less globalized world during the initial phase of the post-pandemic recovery as economies internalize, reigniting a dormant trade war between the United States and China will likely exponentially hinder any economic improvement. And breaking the trade deal will trigger a defeat for the global equity market. “
Analysts warned that after a strong month of April, buoyed by optimism that the worst of the disease has passed, equities could suffer a tumultuous May as corporate earnings and other indicators reveal the extent of the damage inflicted.
“My concern is that the market has valued all that optimism before facing the worst news about the economy and about some industries and earnings,” Michael Jones of Caravel Concepts LLC told Bloomberg TV.
“There are some challenges and setbacks that are going to hit us in the face for the next four weeks and we are no longer priced cheaply enough to look beyond all that bad news.”
The US dollar rose against most major currencies amid fears that last year’s dispute between the United States and China will reignite, this time because of the origins of the pandemic that has paralyzed economies around the world.
The euro fell 0.37 percent to $ 1.0933 and the pound fell 0.72 percent to $ 1.2407.
Gold prices also increased when investors sought security. Spot gold rose 0.3 percent to $ 1,704.31 per ounce.
Oil had a three-day gain, as optimism about an incipient recovery in demand was replaced by concerns that global excess oil may persist even as blockages begin to ease.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 5.5 percent to $ 18.69 a barrel, while Brent crude futures fell 2.8 percent to $ 25.70.
[ad_2]
