Asian markets took a huge plunge Monday as US futures pointed to significant losses on Wall Street over Donald Trump’s punishing tariffs, even as countries sought compromise with the defiant president.
Trump denied Sunday he was intentionally engineering a selloff and insisted he could not foresee market reactions, saying he would not make a deal with other countries unless trade deficits were solved.
“Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” he said of the market pain that has seen trillions of dollars wiped off the value of US companies since the beginning of his tariff rampage.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, he added that he had sought to resolve the issue with world leaders over the weekend, claiming “they’re dying to make a deal.”
China retaliated against the United States on Friday, announcing it would impose tit-for-tat tariffs of 34 percent on all US goods from April 10 after Asian markets closed last week.
With the trade war escalating, stocks in Asia took a heavy hammering when trading resumed.
In early trade on Monday in Japan the Nikkei 225 was off an eye-watering 6.5 percent, while stocks in Taiwan were down almost 10 percent and in Singapore 8.5 percent.বিস্তারিত