US stocks tumble on trade war fears
Wall Street tumbled on Friday with more than 1,000 points knocked off the Dow in two days as investors, increasingly nervous about a potential US trade war with China, shied away from risk ahead of the weekend and sought shelter from further losses.
In a volatile session, the S&P 500 came within a hair of its 200-day moving average, a key technical level. The benchmark index also nudged closer to its February low, which marked a correction, ending 9.9 percent lower than its Jan. 26 record.
President Donald Trump’s plans for tariffs on up to $60 billion in Chinese goods moved the world’s two largest economies closer to a trade war as China declared plans to levy duties on up to $3 billion of U.S. imports including fruit and wine even as it urged the United States to “pull back from the brink.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 424.69 points, or 1.77 percent, to 23,533.2, the S&P 500 lost 55.43 points, or 2.10 percent, to 2,588.26 after hitting an intraday low that was barely above its 200-day moving average of 2585.22.
The Nasdaq Composite dropped 174.01 points, or 2.43 percent, to 6,992.67.
For the week, the Dow was down 5.67 percent, the S&P 500 was down 5.95 percent and the Nasdaq was down 6.54 percent, marking their biggest weekly percentage falls since January 2016.
The Dow was down 11.6 percent since its Jan. 26 high, and hit its lowest close since confirming a correction in February.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 3.96-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.72-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted two new 52-week highs and 42 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 23 new highs and 93 new lows. Volume on US exchanges was 8.11 billion shares, above the 7.3 billion average for the last 20 trading days.
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Pakistan’s KSE-100 index powers past 45,000 barrier
The Stock Market enjoyed another positive session on Thursday as it got support from active buying and the benchmark index crossed the 45,000 barrier to finish the fourth successive session in the black.
The momentum, generated by the rupee’s sharp depreciation on Tuesday, continued for the third day. The KSE-100 Index gained points in the first hour of trading, but later it skidded off track to trade at lower levels around 44,700.
Soon after, investors jumped in to buy stocks at attractive valuations, which propelled the index to an intra-day high of 45,032.41 points.
Overall, trading volumes rose to 228 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 207 million. Shares of 393 firms were traded. At the end of the day, 202 stocks ended higher, 171 fell while 20 remained equal. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs9.4 billion. TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 22.3 million shares, gaining Rs 0.58 to end at Rs38.90. It was followed by Lotte Chemical with 15.1 million shares, gaining Rs 0.08 to close at Rs 10.45 and Fauji Foods with 12.5 million shares, gaining Rs1.44 to close at Rs34.22.
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European stocks decline more as mounting trade fears hit cyclicals
European shares fell on Friday with autos and basic resources stocks bearing the brunt of a wide sell-off triggered by mounting worries that US tariffs on up to $60 billion of imports from China could escalate.
All sectors were trading in negative territory, sending pan-regional STOXX 600 benchmark index falling for a second day, down 1.4 percent to its lowest level since February 2017. Euro zone indexes including the export-sensitive DAX also fell more 1.8 percent but remained above early March lows, while the FTSE dropped 1.1 percent to fresh 15-month lows reached on the back of a strengthening pound. Enel fell 0.2 percent after Italy’s biggest utility reported growth a 14.4 percent growth in its 2017 ordinary net profit last year that to beat its own guidance.
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Hong Kong, Shanghai shares dive on US-China trade war fears
Hong Kong and Chinese share markets slumped on Friday as tit-for-tat threats between the United States and China raised fears of a damaging trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
The Hang Seng Index fell 2.45 percent, or 761.76 points, to end at 30,309.29.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed 3.39 percent lower, or 110.72 points, at 3,152.76 on turnover of 293.4 billion yuan ($46.4 billion). It lost 3.58 percent over the week. The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China’s second exchange, fell 4.49 percent, or 82.99 points, to 1,766.61 on turnover of 341.9 billion yuan. It lost 5.18 percent in the week.
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Tokyo’s Nikkei plunges 4.51pc
Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei index on Friday plunged to the lowest level since early October on revived trade war fears as US President Donald Trump unveiled tariffs on Chinese imports.
The Nikkei fell 4.51 percent, or 974.13 points, to 20,617.86, the lowest since October 5 last year, while the broader Topix index dropped 3.62 percent or 62.45 points, to 1,664.94.
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India’s Sensex sheds 410 points
Indian stock markets closed in negative territory on Friday with Sensex shedding 410 points to settle at a six-month low as US President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Chinese imports rattled investors around the globe. In a major development on Thursday, Donald Trump inked a memorandum that imposed tariffs on the dispensation of goods and investment from the Mainland China.
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Canadian share market continues decline
Canada’s main stock index continued falling Friday due to declines in financial and industrial shares and fears of a global trade war.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s benchmark Standard & TSX composite index dropped 176.19 points, or 1.14 percent to close the day at 15,223.74, the lowest close since Feb. 13. Eight of the index’s 10 main groups ended lower.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.37 cents at 0.78 U.S. dollar. The financial sector fell 1.6 percent. Toronto-Dominion Bank dipped 2.3 percent to 73.21 Canadian dollars. Royal Bank of Canada declined 1.4 percent to 99.21 Canadian dollars. Industrials fell 1.4 percent as railroad shares lost ground. The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, gained 0.6 percent. Techs suffered, as BlackBerry lost 3.3 percent, to 16.03 Canadian dollars while Constellation Software backtracked 1.2 percent to 862.11 Canadian dollars.