Stocks Slump and the Dollar Falls on Concerns That Tariffs Will Hurt Growth

Markets on Monday continued to reverberate from President Trump’s trade war and threats to try to remove the chair of the Federal Reserve, with stocks slumping, bonds selling off and the U.S. dollar continuing to lose ground.

U.S. stock markets, which reopen Monday after the Good Friday holiday, were pointing to a lower open. S&P 500 futures were more than 1 percent lower.

U.S. government bonds, which have emerged as a major concern for Wall Street and the White House, showed renewed stress, with the 10-year Treasury yield jumping above 4.4 percent. (Yields move inversely to prices.) Gold surged to another record high, as investors sought out assets not tied to the U.S. dollar.

In Asia, the Nikkei 225, Japan’s benchmark stock index, fell 1.3 percent. The Nikkei ended last week on an upswing on hopes of a trade deal with the United States. Taiwan stocks fell 1.5 percent. Stocks in Japan and Taiwan, both of which are highly intertwined trading partners with the United States, are the worst performers this year in Asia.

Many markets, including those in Hong Kong, Australia and much of Europe, remained closed on Monday for Easter holidays.

The price of oil, which has fallen as much as 24 percent since mid-January, was down nearly 3 percent on Monday, with Brent crude at about $66 a barrel. Oil prices are often considered a barometer of future economic growth, and they have been weighed down by the prospect that Trump’s tariffs will damage international trade.

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