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Around about $100 billion has been wiped from the Australian Stock Exchange as Donald Trump’s tariffs spooked investors into the worst day of trading in almost five years.
The ASX200 closed the day down 4.2 per cent at 7343.3, a loss of almost $100 billion.
While that was an improvement on early trading, after the United Stars IPO was proposed $160 billion was wiped in an immediate 6.4 per cent plunge to a 16-month low of 7177.3, it was still the worst day for the stock exchange since May 2020 when the world was reeling from the outbreak of COVID-19.
Mining and energy companies and the big four banks were among the biggest drops, which came even after the ASX-200 opened at a 100-day low of 7453.90. The All Ordinaries also plunged 4.12 per cent to 7524.3 at the close.
The sell-off sparked by Trump’s trade war extended to Asian markets as well, while European markets have opened the day to sharp losses. London’s FTSE100 shed more than 5 per cent just after opening and the German Xetra DAX plummeted around 9 per cent early on before clawing back a couple of per cent.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost nearly 8 per cent shortly after the market opened and futures trading for the benchmark was briefly suspended. It closed down 7.8 per cent at 31,136.58.
Chinese markets often don’t follow global trends, but they also tumbled. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 12.4 per cent to 20,022.82, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 8.4 per cent to 3059.94.
In Taiwan, the Taiex plummeted 9.7 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi lost 5.6 per cent.
“The idea that there’s so much uncertainty going forward about how these tariffs are going to play out, that’s what’s really driving this plummet in the stock prices,” Rintaro Nishimura, an associate at the Asia Group, said. And any hope of a reprieve tomorrow appears distant, with US futures markets suggesting only more weakness.
The future for the S&P 500 lost 3.7 per cent while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 2.9 per cent. The future for the Nasdaq lost 4.7 per cent.
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