European shares dropped Monday after a mixed trading session in Asia as uncertainty persisted over what President Donald Trump will do with tariffs.
Germany’s DAX lost 0.6% to 22,874.88, while the CAC 40 in Paris declined 0.3% to 8,098.98. Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 0.3% to 8,653.22.
The future for the S&P 500 was down 1% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.8%.
Shares in China led losses in Asia, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index down 1.9% at 23,783.49. The Shanghai Composite index shed 0.2% to 3,366.16.
In China, consumer prices dropped in February for the first time in 13 months, indicating a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. The decrease was mainly due to weak demand exacerbated by the early timing of the Lunar New Year holiday.
Meanwhile, in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index rose by 0.4% to reach 37,028.27. Japan’s trade minister, Yoji Muto, was in Washington for discussions aimed at preventing higher U.S. tariffs on Japanese steel, aluminum, and automobile exports.
Muto expressed the importance of finding mutually beneficial solutions for both Japan and the U.S. in light of input from the industrial sector. He emphasized the need for dialogue that would result in a positive outcome for both countries.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports will take effect Wednesday.
Elsewhere in the region, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.2% at 7,962.30, while the Kospi in South Korea gained 0.3% to 2,570.39.
Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.5% and the Sensex in India fell 0.3%. Bangkok’s SET slipped 1.7%.
On Friday, Wall Street rose after a wild ending to a brutal week of scary swings dominated by worries about the U.S. economy and uncertainty about what President Donald Trump will do with tariffs.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.6%, storming back from an earlier loss that had reached 1.3%. That followed a punishing stretch where it swung more than 1%, up or down, for six straight days.
The Dow industrials added 0.5% and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.7%. Last week was the worst for the S&P 500 since September and it left the index a little more than 6% below its all-time high set last month.
The head of the Federal Reserve helped ease the market’s worries on Friday afternoon after saying he thinks the economy looks stable at the moment, and he doesn’t feel pressure to cut interest rates in order to prop it up.
“The costs of being cautious are very, very low” right now, Powell said about holding steady on interest rates. “The economy is fine. It doesn’t need us to do anything really. We can wait, and we should wait.”
U.S. Labor Department said Friday that U.S. employers added 151,000 more jobs last month than they cut. That was slightly below economists’ expectations, but it was an acceleration from January’s hiring.
Recent, discouraging surveys had shown souring confidence for U.S. businesses and households because of uncertainty around Trump’s tariffs, and economists were waiting to see if Friday’s report would show if that was translating into real pain for the economy and job market.
The whiplash actions from the White House on tariffs – first placing them on trading partners and then exempting some and then doing it again – have raised uncertainty for businesses.
That sparked fears businesses might freeze in response to what they have described as “chaos” and pull back on hiring. U.S. households, meanwhile, are bracing for higher inflation because of tariffs, which is weakening their confidence and could hold back their spending. That would sap more energy from the economy.
Trump said Friday he wants tariffs to bring jobs back to the United States, and he gave no indication more certainty is imminent for financial markets. “There will always be changes and adjustments,” he said in comments from the Oval Office.
In other dealings early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil was unchanged at $67.04 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 7 cents to $70.43 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar slipped to 147.24 Japanese yen from 147.94 yen. The euro rose to $1.0844 from $1.0836.
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