HONG KONG - President Donald Trump sent Asian markets plunging Monday after threatening to hike tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods at the end of the week in a bid to speed up stuttering trade talks between the economic superpowers. The two sides have imposed tariffs on $360 billion in two-way trade since last year. But Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed a truce in December, helping fan a surge across world stock markets for the past four months. In early trade Hong Kong tumbled 2.5 percent and Shanghai was off more than three percent, with Singapore off 2.8 percent, Taipei 1.5 percent off, while Sydney and Wellington were each one percent down. "Despite US-China trade talks hitting an apparent impasse based on (the) tweet, I think a deal will be signed shortly."

Source: Bangkok Post May 06, 2019 02:37 UTC