The stock market continued to see declines on Friday as fears of a global recession rose following the announcement of U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
Nifty 50 was down 1.20 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.97 percent. The S&P 500 index also declined by 4.84 percent.
The dollar index continued its decline, falling 0.34 percent to 101.72.
Asian market down
The Asian stock market took a hit, with the Nikkei falling 3.42 percent as of 4:44 GMT, raising its weekly losses to over 9.6 percent. Meanwhile, the broader Topix index fell 4.41 percent to 2,455.32 and is set for a weekly dip of 10 percent. Both indexes were set for their steepest weekly losses since March 2020.
The selloff was triggered by Trump’s announcement on Wednesday, which marked the highest U.S. tariff rates seen since 1910. The latest U.S. trade policy shifted investor focus toward safe-haven assets like gold, bonds, and the yen.
Only five of the Tokyo Stock Exchange‘s 33 industry sub-indices didn’t witness a decline on Friday, with the banking index falling 10 percent, making it the worst performer. The banking index was on track for a decline of more than 20 percent this week, its worst weekly performance on record.
Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Friday that the central bank will carefully inspect the impact of U.S. tariffs on the country’s economy when setting monetary policy, warning that higher charges will likely weigh on global and domestic economic growth.
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Wall Street futures suffer sharp falls
Wall Street futures started steady but have since also slipped around 0.7 percent, while European stock futures fell between 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent. S&P 500 companies lost a combined $2.4 trillion in stock market value amid one of the largest single-day percentage losses in years.
EUROSTOXX 50 futures also declined 3.59 percent, while FTSE futures were down 1.55 percent and DAX futures fell 3.01 percent.
U.S. Treasury yields also slid as investors rallied to safe-haven bonds. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield fell to a six-month low of 3.9720 percent, while the two-year yield declined to 3.6200 percent, its lowest since October.
The major dip in stock markets globally reflected investors’ worries about a global recession. In the United States, traders have increased their expectations for more Federal Reserve rate cuts this year, noting that policymakers would have to ease more aggressively to preserve economic growth in the world’s largest economy.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell is due to speak later today and investors will be on the lookout for his assessment of the U.S. economy and any clues on the policy outlook following Trump’s fresh tariffs.
