Stock markets mostly drop as trade war fears deepen

LONDON: Stock markets mostly fell Thursday, as fears intensified over the escalating global trade war, analysts said.

The dollar rose across the board, with the pound slumping under $1.30 for the first time in 10 months as weak UK retail sales data dented the chances of an interest rate hike from the Bank of England in August, experts added.

"A drop in retail sales... has sent the pound sharply lower, continuing the general trend of the week," noted Chris Beauchamp, market analyst at IG trading group.

Across the Atlantic, Wall Street stocks fell, with several companies tumbling after earnings.

But Comcast and Walt Disney Co. gained over 3 percent each, as Comcast said it was pulling out of the bidding war with Disney for film and television operations of Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox and would focus on acquiring the European TV operator Sky.

- Global trade under threat -

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On the macroeconomic front, the markets were still mulling Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's warning that the spiralling global trade war was having a negative impact on companies in the US.

President Donald Trump has imposed steep tariffs on products from China worth tens of billions of dollars, and has threatened to target hundreds of billions more, on top of import taxes on steel and aluminium that have angered allies including the EU.

The Fed chief said US businesses were already being hurt by reciprocal tariffs on key products, pointing out: "The bottom line is a more protectionist economy is less competitive, less productive."

He also said that if Trump's trade policy ultimately resulted in lower tariffs, that could be good for the US economy.

For now, however, analysts fear that any further tariffs could put a dent in a trend of buoyant global economic growth -- and cause a headache for US businesses.

"Increased trade tensions have raised the risk that new measures may be taken that would have a much greater impact on global economic growth than those enacted so far," Fitch Ratings analysts said in a note.

"So far the scale of tariffs imposed has been too small to materially affect our forecasts for world growth," they wrote.

"However, further measures mooted by the US would mark a significant escalation," they added, warning that in the worst-case scenario, supply chains could be disrupted, consumers' wages could fall and job creation could be hit.

- Key figures at 1540 GMT -

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New York - Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 25,137.97 points

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 7,683.97 (close)

Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 0.6 percent at 12,686.29 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.6 percent at 5,417.07 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,099.37

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.1 percent at 22,764.68 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 0.4 percent at 28,010.86 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 2,772.55 (close)

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2990 from $1.3069 at 2030 GMT

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1609 from $1.1639

Dollar/yen: UP at 112.97 yen from 112.86 yen

Oil - Brent Crude: UP 32 cents at $73.22 per barrel

Oil - West Texas Intermediate: UP 60 cents at $68.35 per barrel