US stocks tumbled on Friday after China rejected the idea of negotiating with the US to ease escalating trade tension and Donald Trump’s treasury secretary said “there is the potential of a trade war.”
The S&P 500 index ended the day down 2.2 per cent — taking the overall loss since its January high to near the 10 per cent mark that signifies a correction — while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq both fell 2.3 per cent.
Concerns that the tit-for-tat tariff threats between Washington and Beijing could push the world’s two largest economies into a full-scale trade war sent investors scrambling for the safety of US Treasuries, pushing the yield of the 10-year US government bond down by 6 basis points to 2.77 per cent.