Asian markets tumbled on Friday after President Donald Trump said he doesn’t plan to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping before a tariffs truce ends in March.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng
HSI, -0.48%
, reopening after a Lunar New Year break, gave up 0.8%. The Kospi
SEU, -1.08%
in South Korea declined 1.2% and Australia’s S&P ASX 200
XJO, -0.47%
was down 0.4%.
Tencent
0700, -0.86%
fell in Hong Kong trading, as did CNOOC
0883, -2.88%
and CSPC Pharmaceutical
1093, -2.54%
, while AAC
2018, +2.13%
, Sunny Optical
2382, +2.18%
and AIA Group
1299, +1.79%
gained. Samsung
005930, -3.03%
slid in Korea, while Australian energy stocks, such as Santos
STO, -4.37%
, Woodside Petroleum
WPL, -2.36%
and Beach Energy
BPT, -9.12%
tumbled.
Stocks fell in Indonesia
JAKIDX, -0.17%
and Singapore
STI, -0.08%
but rose in Malaysia
FBMKLCI, -0.48%
. Markets in China and Taiwan were closed.
On Thursday, Trump did not dismiss the possibility of meeting Xi in the next month or so. But he shook his head and said no when reporters asked if the meeting would take place before March 2. That marks the end of a 90-day tariffs truce mooted after Trump and Xi met in December.
Read: New White House message on China is that there’s a long way to go before striking trade deal
Unless American and Chinese negotiators come to a new agreement, the U.S. is expected to raise import taxes from 10% to 25% for $200 billion in Chinese goods. The trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies, which has cooled in recent months, has weighed on the outlook of businesses and the global economy.
“The worries surround the uncertainties of a resolution to the likelihood of further tariffs in this on-again, off-again confidence with regards to a deal,” Jingyi Pan of IG said in a market commentary.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin and trade representative Robert Lighthizer will lead a delegation to Beijing next week for the next round of trade talks. Officials have reported little progress on contentious issues but remain hopeful that a deal will be struck.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index
NIK, -1.76%
was 1.6% lower. On Friday, Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony
6758, +5.01%
announced its first 100 billion yen ($911.2 million) share buyback for 2.36% of its Tokyo-listed stock. Its shares were up by 5%early trading. Meanwhile, Nikon
7731, -11.89%
plunged and auto makers such as Toyota
7203, -1.90%
and Honda
7267, -2.23%
slipped.
On Wall Street, stocks closed lower Thursday following a sell-off by technology companies, health care stocks and banks. Twitter
TWTR, -9.84%
plunged almost 10% after issuing a weak forecast. The broad S&P 500 index
SPX, -0.94%
shed 0.9% to 2,706.05. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA, -0.87%
was 0.9% lower at 25,169.53 and the Nasdaq composite
COMP, -1.18%
slid 1.2% to 7,288.35.
U.S. crude
CLH9, -0.85%
lost 29 cents to $52.35 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It dropped $1.37 to settle at $52.64 per barrel in New York. Brent crude
LCOJ9, -0.75%
, used to price international oils, retreated 23 cents to $61.40 per barrel. It fell $1.06 to close at $61.63 per barrel in London.
The dollar
USDJPY, -0.03%
weakened to 109.76 yen from 109.82 yen late Thursday.
Providing critical information for the U.S. trading day. Subscribe to MarketWatch’s free Need to Know newsletter. Sign up here.
Source : MTV
