LONDON (Reuters) - Investors sold equities on Wednesday and raced to buy Japanese yen and government bonds from the United States and Germany on fears that setbacks to U.S-China trade talks would undermine increasingly fragile-looking world growth.
The yen JPY=EBS rose more than 1 percent against the dollar, U.S. bond yields, which move inversely to price, fell to eight-day lows.
World shares meanwhile slipped half a percent to a two-week low as weak euro zone data added to negative sentiment following U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments on the crucial trade talks.
Investors were also eyeing Turkey and Italy, with the former seemingly headed for a full-blown economic crisis as the Turkish lira plunged to new record lows.
Italian borrowing costs resumed their rise to hit new multi-month highs on fears that an incoming coalition will sharply boost government spending.
The risk-off mood was initially triggered by Trump saying he was not pleased with progress on trade talks with China.
The comments tempered optimism that China and the United States would be able to avert a damaging global trade war. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had said at the weekend the “trade war” was “on hold”.
Trump also floated plans to fine China’s ZTE Corp and cast doubt on a planned June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
Those developments are set to weigh on Wall Street later in the day, with S&P500 and Dow Jones futures down 0.6-0.8 percent.
In Asian trading, MSCI’s ex-Japan Asian equity benchmark fell 0.3 percent and Japan’s Nikkei lost 1.2 percent
