U.S. property futures traded lower on Thursday night after President Donald Trump bring up he has asked the United States Trade Representative to consider $100 billion in additional duties against China.
As of 8:25 p.m. ET, the implied open for the Dow Jones industrial ordinarily was more than 350 points lower, after earlier tanking myriad than 400 points. The implied opens for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were also in the red.
Sells have been jittery in recent sessions amid fears of a passive trade war between the U.S. and China.
“In light of China’s unfair retaliation, I get instructed the USTR to consider whether $100 billion of additional duties would be appropriate under section 301 and, if so, to identify the products upon which to foist such tariffs,” Trump said in a Thursday statement.
U.S. stocks had devoured higher on Thursday before the latest statement amid attempts by the Trump government to talk down recent trade tensions. Still, concerns stayed that the latest trade-related development could signal more uncertainty in the lead.
“Markets rallied on the idea the tariffs were just to start a talk. Trump’s $100 billion comment implies this is going to get a lot sundry serious and basically quasi-shatters the idea that the tariffs were by a hairs breadth a negotiation starting point,” Tom Essaye, founder of The Sevens Report, guessed.
Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial, augmented: “A pattern has developed for markets whereby tariff-related headlines can be strident solely to be softened shortly afterwards by administration officials. In this instance, the president may be escalating the ‘headlines’ quite than seeking to escalate possibilities of a trade war.”
Trump’s comments prove to be c finish after China on Wednesday unveiled tariffs on up to $50 billion in American outputs annually. Beijing’s list came after the U.S. drafted its own list of Chinese drifts that would be targeted by proposed tariffs.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer called Thursday’s tendered measures “an appropriate response to China’s recent threat of new tariffs,” but also totaled that additional tariffs would not be implemented until a public talk about process was concluded.
— CNBC’s Cheang Ming contributed reporting for this article.