Jitters about US tariffs hammered Asian stocks again early Friday as President Donald Trump acknowledged a “cost” to his surging trade offensive against superpower rival China.
The US leader said Thursday that the European Union was “very smart” to back off from imposing retaliatory tariffs because of his tough stance on China even as the bloc’s chief warned it could tax US Big Tech.
“(The EU) were ready to announce retaliation. And then they heard about what we did with respect to China… and they said, you know, ‘We’re going to hold back a little bit,'” Trump said.
Trump acknowledged “a transition cost and transition problems,” but dismissed global market turmoil. “In the end it’s going to be a beautiful thing.”
On Wall Street, the broad-based S&P 500 finished down 3.5 percent on Thursday after soaring 9.5 percent the day before. The Dow Jones shed 2.5 percent and the Nasdaq 4.3 percent.
In early trade in Asia Friday, Japan’s Nikkei tumbled over five percent, handing back some of the 9.1-percent gain of the previous day. Seoul and Sydney also fell.
Oil and the dollar slid on fears of a global slowdown while gold hit a new record. Fellow safe haven asset the yen also firmed against the greenback.
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