LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks were dragged lower on Wednesday by growing anxiety ahead of Washington’s end of week deadline to impose tariffs on Chinese imports, while the yuan rebounded after China’s central bank moved to calm investors.
The MSCI All-Country World index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, was down 0.1 percent on the day.
Washington has said it would implement tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports on July 6, and Beijing has vowed to retaliate in kind on the same day.
Concerns about the outbreak of a global trade war have, among other factors, prevented a sustained recovery in global stock markets since a violent selloff in February.
The U.S. has listed another 284 product lines valued at $16 billion that it will target with tariffs, including semiconductors and a broad range of electronics. It also threatened another 10 percent tariffs on up to $400 billion of Chinese goods.
Washington has also launched a national security investigation into car and truck imports, with Trump threatening Europe with a 20 percent tariff on car imports while various countries have also already taken retaliatory steps against U.S. tariffs on steels and aluminum products.
Over 40 countries have voiced deep concern at the World Trade Organization (WTO) about possible U.S. measures.
“There is a lot of concern I think about the effect a long term trade war might have but actually if you look at the data we’re seeing, the economic data is not that bad,” said Michael Hewson, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets in London, noting that most equity markets were well above
