Trump’s new tariff threat sends stocks tumbling anew

MANILA, Philippines — The stock market continued to retreat yesterday, two days after Monday’s rally.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index tumbled by another 30.09 points, or 0.36 percent, to end at 8,233.48.

Likewise, the broader All Shares lost 11.45 points or 0.22 percent, to end at 5,001.54.

Most sectoral indexes were also down.

Total value turnover reached P5.307 billion. Market breadth was negative, 89 to 85 while 67 issues were unchanged.

In a commentary, Philstocks Financials said the Philippine main index dropped yesterday  amid President Trump’s comment that the US may slap more tariffs on Chinese goods.

Foreign buying reached P2.6 billion, while foreign selling was P2.2 billion for a net foreign selling of P384 million.

“Local shares traded slightly in the red after President Trump cited that they could impose tariffs on another $325 billion of China goods. This was from a statement where he said that if the US wanted an agreement with China on trade tariffs, it had a long way to go,” said Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital.

Limlingan said this came a day after Trump said the trade war had caused a slowdown in China’s economy, referring to its GDP growth of 6.2 percent.

Thus, most markets closed mixed to lower after successive days of gains because of Trump’s statements.