Hong Kong/Singapore — A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money, as one American politician once said. Now that the US-China trade spat is encompassing potentially hundreds of billions of dollars, investors are under pressure to figure out how to respond. The initial reaction to US President Donald Trump’s threat to slap tariffs on an additional $200bn of Chinese imports was to bail out of US stock futures and pile into the yen, the trusty safe-haven currency thanks to Japan’s record net-creditor status. Contracts on the S&P 500 Index were down 0.9% and the yen up 0.6% against the dollar as of 12.47pm in Tokyo. Equities also tumbled from Tokyo to Hong Kong, and Treasuries rose as China threatened retaliation. But how about beyond Tuesday? If the world’s top two economies are now in a trade war, how should investors position themselves? The following are some thoughts from fund managers and strategists. Blackrock Australia "Will it escalate from...
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