London — Share markets recoiled on Wednesday as a $50bn retaliation from China in escalating trade tensions with the US left investors reluctant to take positions in anything but the safest of assets. The US market had taken heart overnight from bets that US President Donald Trump’s Twitter attacks on online retail giant Amazon would not translate into actual policy. Yet trade worries were never far away. Late on Tuesday, the Trump administration announced 25% tariffs on $50bn of annual imports from China, covering about 1,300 industrial technology, transport and medical products. Within 11 hours, China responded with penalties on $50bn of US goods ranging from soybeans, cars and chemicals to whisky, cigars and tobacco with its vice-finance minister stressing the country had never given in to external pressure. The moves triggered further heavy selling in global stock markets and commodities, with US stock futures sliding 1.5%, soybean futures plunging 3.7% and the dollar and China’...
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