Stocks Drop, Yen Holds Gain as Tariff Man Returns: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks slumped Tuesday after a sell-off on Wall Street triggered by fresh tariffs announced by President Donald Trump, renewing concerns about global trade tensions.Japan’s currency held most of its gains after its biggest jump since October on Monday in the wake of Trump slapping steel tariffs on Brazil and Argentina. Shares in Japan, Australia and South Korea dropped. Hong Kong and Shanghai benchmarks opened lower. U.S. futures were little changed after the S&P 500 Index slumped 0.9% Monday, when disappointing U.S. manufacturing data added to the risk-off tone. Treasuries were the odd asset out, falling on Monday amid a global retreat from bonds, and were little changed Tuesday.A U.S. proposal for tariffs on $2.4 billion of French goods, announced after the Wall Street close, may add to concerns about the looming Dec. 15 deadline on the next round of levies on China. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross warned that those will go ahead if there’s no U.S.-China trade deal.“It looks like it’s going to be pushed to the beginning of next year at the best case,” Steve Brice, chief investment strategist at Standard Chartered private bank, said on Bloomberg TV with regard to a U.S.-China trade agreement. The message to investors is “maybe trim a little bit of equity exposure, or certainly not chase the market at this stage. But look to do so in the next few weeks if we see a 5-to-7% pullback.”Meantime, an unexpected decline in U.S. manufacturing contrasted with signs of recovery in China and Europe. Two-year Treasury yields dipped on Monday.Elsewhere, oil rose the most in more than a week as traders sifted for fresh signals of whether OPEC and allied crude producers will tighten supplies when they meet later this week.Here are some key events coming up this week:The Reserve Bank of Australia’s monetary policy decision is due Tuesday.Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering is scheduled to be priced on Thursday.Friday brings the U.S. jobs report, where estimates are for non-farm payrolls to rise by 190,000 in November.These are the main moves in markets:StocksTopix index declined 0.7% as of 12:04 p.m. in Tokyo.Australia S&P/ASX 200 Index tumbled 2%.South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.6%.Hang Seng Index fell 0.5%.Shanghai Composite down 0.5%.Futures on the S&P 500 Index were little changed.CurrenciesThe yen was at 109.07 per dollar.The offshore yuan was at 7.0433 per dollar.The euro was at $1.1073.Britain’s pound was at $1.2933.BondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries was flat at 1.82% after climbing four basis points Monday.Australian 10-year yields rose about three basis points to 1.12%.CommoditiesWest Texas Intermediate crude was up 0.4% at $56.2 a barrel.Gold was little changed at $1,462.2 an ounce.\--With assistance from Rita Nazareth, Vildana Hajric, Sophie Caronello and Joanna Ossinger.To contact the reporter on this story: Andreea Papuc in Sydney at apapuc1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Anstey at canstey@bloomberg.net, Ravil ShirodkarFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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