Global stocks battered by deadlock in China-US trade talks
Equities suffer their worst week of the year as the risk of a full-blown trade war 'materially increases'
London — Global equities fell on Monday after their worst week of 2019, as hopes of an imminent US-China trade deal were crushed and neither side showed a willingness to budge, raising fears of a fresh round of tit-for-tat tariffs. The US and China appeared at a deadlock over trade negotiations on Sunday as Washington demanded promises of concrete changes to Chinese law and Beijing said it would not swallow any “bitter fruit” that harmed its interests. “Looks like we are just slowly ebbing away. More tweets from Trump over the weekend stoking the fires for a trade war,” said John Woolfitt at London-based Atlantic Markets. The impasse left investors bracing for threatened retaliation by China for Washington’s tariff increase on Friday on $200bn worth of Chinese goods. The move followed accusations by US President Donald Trump that Beijing had reneged on earlier commitments. The pan-European Stoxx 600 slipped 0.7% while S&P 500 futures shed 1.3%. Chinese shares tumbled, with the bench...
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