LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks were flat on Wednesday amid growing anxiety ahead of Washington’s end of week deadline to impose tariffs on Chinese imports, while the yuan steadied after China’s central bank acted to calm investors.
The MSCI All-Country World index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, was lower by less than 0.1 percent on the day, recovering slightly from a 0.2 percent fall earlier.
Washington has said it would implement tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports on July 6, and Beijing has promised to retaliate in kind on the same day. However, China’s finance ministry said it will “absolutely not” fire the first shot in a trade war with the United States and will not be the first to levy tariffs.
Concerns about the outbreak of a global trade war have, among other factors, prevented a sustained recovery in global stock markets since a violent sell-off knocked them off records highs in February.
The United States has listed another 284 product lines valued at $16 billion that it will target with tariffs, including semiconductors and a broad range of electronics.
U.S. President Donald Trump also threatened tariffs on as much as $400 billion worth of Chinese goods if Beijing retaliates against the U.S. tariffs due to go into force on Friday.
Washington has 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
