Trump Administration Has “Blood Lust” Over Trade, Says Chinese Paper

North American stock markets fell in mid-day trading, with the S&P/TSX composite index falling 50.84 points to 16,332.79.

With Wall Street sliding further into the red on Tuesday and nerves on edge among lawmakers in Trump’s Republican Party, senior White House economic aide Peter Navarro defended the new trade policy.

Investors sought safer investments, such as high-dividend companies like utilities and companies that make and sell household goods. Officials also drew up a second list of $16bn in chemical and energy products to hit with new tariffs, though China did not announce a date for imposing them.

The trade war has heated up, with Washington promising further tariffs if China retaliates, which it duly has.

In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average saw all of its 2018 gains erased yesterday, as the sharp escalation in the trade dispute jolted the markets and triggered a rush to safer assets. As of 8:25 p.m. ET, S&P 500 futures were down just over 0.5% and Nasdaq futures were off just over 0.65%.

Some companies have reported Beijing is meeting with Chinese businesses to discuss shifting contracts for usa goods and services to suppliers from Europe or Japan, or to local Chinese firms, Parker said. Boeing’s stock shed 4.3 percent, Caterpillar 4 percent and GE 2.2 percent.

Chinese companies listed in the US took sharp losses.

Wall Street has viewed the trade tensions with rising concern that they could strangle the economic growth achieved during Trump’s watch.

US stock markets fell sharply Tuesday morning, with investors increasingly nervous about the impact of the escalating fight.

A trade spat between the top two economies of the world began in April with Trump imposing tariffs on steel and aluminium imports into the United States from China, which also retaliated by imposing additional tariffs worth about Dollars three billion on 128 United States products. The list was created using a computer algorithm that chose products to hurt Chinese exporters while limiting the impact on United States buyers.

“China could target US firms through tax and regulatory policies”, said Citigroup in a report. That follows brisk selling in worldwide markets.

The Hong Kong bourse fell 3.1 percent, while Shanghai was down 3.8 percent, its lowest level since mid-2016.

That’s because as prices on imported goods rise, domestic firms typically charge more too.

-China Business Council in Beijing, said China would “begin looking at other ways to enforce action against U.S companies that are operating in the market”.

Late Monday, Trump also announced he might pursue $200 billion more in tariffs on Chinese goods, though it was unclear whether the list would include more chips or computing products that might impact Intel.

In an editorial, the English language China Daily, often used by Beijing to get its message out to the rest of the world, said the United States had failed to honor an agreement on rebalancing trade, referencing a deal stuck in May for China to significantly increase purchases of USA goods and services.