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[sprinkleeninow]

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Asian markets sink as Trump ratchets up trade tensions
By Marketwatch and Associated Press
Published: Aug 25, 2019 11:20 p.m. ET

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Deep losses in Tokyo, Hong Kong after Trump says he’ll hike tariffs on Chinese goods.

Reuters
Containers are seen at the Yangshan Deep Water Port in Shanghai, China.
Asian markets plunged in early trading Monday, as the trade war between the U.S. and China heated up.

On Friday, President Donald Trump raised tensions by announcing he would raise tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods to 30% from 25% starting Oct. 1, and hike tariffs on another $300 billion in Chinese imports to 15% from 10%, in two stages, on Sept. 1 and Dec. 15.

Trump said Sunday at the G-7 summit in France that he had some regrets about hiking the tariffs, which the White House later clarified as meaning he regrets he didn’t raise them higher.

Japan’s Nikkei NIK, -2.36% sank 2.1% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI, -2.93% slumped 2.7%. The Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, -1.14% fell 1.2% and the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite 399106, -0.75% retreated 1%. South Korea’s Kospi 180721, -1.56% slipped 1.4%, while benchmark indexes in Taiwan Y9999, -1.60% , Singapore STI, -1.67% and Indonesia JAKIDX, -0.99% fell as well. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 XJO, -1.66% dipped 1.3%.

Among individual stocks, SoftBank 9984, -4.24% and robotics maker Fanuc 6954, -3.68% dropped in Tokyo trading, along with Nikon 7731, -4.10% and Fast Retailing 9983, -4.04% . In Hong Kong, food processor WH Group 288, -7.32% tumbled, with New World Development 17, -3.65% , Apple component maker AAC 2018, -6.63% and oil producer CNOOC 883, -5.76% posting heavy losses as well. Samsung 005930, -1.37% and SK Hynix 000660, -3.76% fell in South Korea, while Foxconn 2354, -2.49% sank in Taiwan. In Australia, Beach Energy BPT, -2.25% , Westpac WBC, -1.31% and BHP BHP, -2.60% fell.



Stephen Innes, managing partner at Valour Markets in Singapore, compared the difficulty of assessing the volatile market situation to reading tea leaves.

“Nobody understands where the president is coming from,” he said, adding that the best thing Trump can do for market stability is to “keep quiet.”

“The problem that we’re faced right now is that we are making a lot of assumptions ahead of the economic realities.”

[elleng]

1. Stephen Innes, managing partner at Valour Markets in Singapore, compared the difficulty

of assessing the volatile market situation to reading tea leaves.

“Nobody understands where the president is coming from,” he said, adding that the best thing Trump can do for market stability is to “keep quiet.”

[sprinkleeninow]

3. IOW, shutty his faccia brute.

Just bc he's colossally and monumentally screwed up doesn't mean we all deserve to be.

[RockRaven]

2. All these market-watching stock-ticker-obsessed Wall Street wankers were creaming their pants

when Trump got elected. Now it is all "boo hoo! his craziness is bad for the markets!" -- well, NO SHIT!

To all the hedge fund managers, wall street pundits, and market watching commentariat: EVERYONE knew EXACTLY who he was, and YOU chose to ignore it and supported the bastard *and his enablers in the GOP* anyway. To the extent you are getting screwed (hint: you are not, not as much as you deserve anyhow), YOU screwed yourselves -- and everyone else, which you seem to be ignoring as usual. Fuck off!!!