Markets fall as Trump threatens escalation of trade war

Markets fell on Monday.

The S&P 500 tumbled 1.4 percent, the STOXX Europe 600 plunged 2.0 percent and the Nikkei 225 fell 0.7 percent.

Markets fell after US President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter insisting that trade partners remove their trade barriers “or be met with more reciprocity by the U.S.”.

“You can now make the case that we’re in a trade war. The language has gotten bad enough, companies are saying the issue is impacting them, and there’s a sense that the numbers and scope of the issue are ratcheting up,” said Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at Robert W. Baird.

Gina Sanchez, CEO of Chantico Global, told CNBC last Friday that a trade war could reduce US GDP by 0.3 to 0.4 percent.