Tuesday, 23 Apr 2024

Trade worries weigh on shares, yields, oil prices

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Concerns over trade relations between the United States and China dragged on global equity markets, oil futures and U.S. Treasury yields on Tuesday as investors fretted that the world’s biggest economies were far from agreement in an ongoing trade spat.

Beijing said its top negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He, would go to Washington for talks this week, as planned, even after U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat on Sunday to ratchet up tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods.

But U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who has been an advocate for tough structural changes in China, said Beijing had reneged on previous commitments.

“The issue is to sit down and make more progress on this. Right now it feels like we’re at a place where things are getting worse, not better, in terms of getting a deal done,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 360.64 points, or 1.36%, to 26,077.84, the S&P 500 lost 43.01 points, or 1.47%, to 2,889.46 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 139.14 points, or 1.71%, to 7,984.15.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 1.23%, while the pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 1.41%. [.N] [.EU]

INVESTORS SEEK SAFETY

U.S. Treasury yields hovered near session lows as investors turned to fixed income for safety after equities opened lower. [L2N22J0IW]

Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 10/32 in price to yield 2.4656%, from 2.5% late on Monday.

The U.S. dollar rose and the Chinese offshore yuan remained hobbled near 2-1/2 month lows as U.S.-China uncertainty rattled traders, though both moves were modest. [L5N22J5SX]

The dollar index, tracking the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.12%, with the euro down 0.1% to $1.1186.

The offshore yuan was last down 0.38% at 6.797 yuan per dollar.

The Japanese yen strengthened 0.34% versus the greenback at 110.41 per dollar.

In emerging markets, the Turkish lira came under renewed heavy fire after the country’s elections board decided to scrap and re-run Istanbul elections.

Oil prices fell on worries U.S.-China tariffs would hurt global growth, but U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela tightened supply and helped limit losses.

U.S. crude fell 1.59% to $61.26 per barrel.

Emerging market stocks lost 0.68%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 0.15% lower, while Japan’s Nikkei lost 1.51%.[.SS]

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