Trade conflict leads to large losses in Asian and Australian stock exchanges

Australian and Asian scholarships opened on Monday morning with large losses. The Hong Kong stock exchange fell by more than 10 percent, the Nikkei in Tokyo by 8 percent and the stock exchange in Taiwan plummeted more than 9 percent. In China, the stock market lost more than 4 percent.

The Australian stock exchange dropped by 6 percent within fifteen minutes of opening and the price of the Australian dollar went below 0.60 US dollars. That is the lowest level since April 2020.

The unrest in the markets arose due to the import tariffs that Donald Trump announced on Wednesday. The US President told reporters that « sometimes a medicine is needed to make something better. » « What will happen to the markets, I can’t tell you. But our country is many times stronger, » he said.

Investors had expected the loss of billions of dollars in assets and the heavy blow to the Economy Trump to reconsider his imposed import duties. « The size and disruptive impact of American trade policy could be sufficient to make a still healthy American and global growth end up in a recession, » said Bruce Kasman, head of the economy at JP Morgan, to Reuters news agency. He estimates the chance of a recession at 60 percent.