Asian equities descend as US-China trade conflict escalates

On Monday, Asian equities went down right after American leader Donald Trump drove trade clashes by going further with duties on Chinese imports, thus helping the Chinese government to instantly respond to this move.

Worries of a global trade conflict ramped up pressure on crude, which extended Friday's big tumble, while the evergreen buck rebounded from a 3-week maximum versus the safe haven yen.

MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific stocks lost 0.4%, demonstrating its lowest reading since May 31.

In Hong Kong and China, financial markets were unavailable due to Dragon Boat festival holiday. Besides this, South Korea's Kospi index went down 0.5%, while Australian equities lost 0.1%.

Japan's Nikkei slumped 0.9% because concerns over soaring protectionism outshone greater-than-anticipated export results.

In the USA, E-mini S&P futures headed south 0.5%.

On Friday, Trump rolled out duties on $50 billion of China’s imports, coming up with a list of over 800 crucial imports from this Asian country, which would be subject to a 25% duty starting on July 6, without vehicles.

China told that it would roll out duties of the same strength scale. According to some sources, China is about to impose 25% duties on 659 American products.

By the way, China's retaliation list was extended, but the overall value was kept at about $50 billion. It’s because a number of high-value items, including commercial aircraft were excluded.

A great number of market watchers are assured that there’s still room for compromise. It seems to them Trump's announcement turned out to be a mere negotiating tactic to get faster rebates from China.

Experts tell the direct impact of the duties might be quite limited, in particular for the American economy that is currently in a good condition.

Equities of Japanese construction equipment manufacturers Komatsu Ltd as well as Hitachi Construction Machinery dived respectively 3.7% and 3.4%.

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