(Updates with closing U.S. market levels)
By David Randall and Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - A comment by President Donald Trump that a deal to end the U.S.-China trade war might not come until after the November 2020 election weighed on global stock markets on Tuesday, sending investors to the safety of bonds.
Trump's saying the trade war may last another year came a day after his administration announced new tariffs on steel from Brazil and Argentina and threatened duties of up to 100% on French goods because of a digital services tax that Washington says harms U.S. tech companies. that appeared to dash hopes that an agreement with China could be reached before another round of U.S. tariff hikes kicks in on Dec. 15 and "triggered a lot of high-frequency traders to sell stocks," said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.
"But later on in the day, we saw buying come in," he said, since "the underlying fundamentals are still favorable." They include a potential re-acceleration in earnings growth, stable economic growth and low interest rates.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS shed 0.6%.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 280.23 points, or 1.01%, to 27,502.81, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 20.67 points, or 0.66%, to 3,093.2 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 47.34 points, or 0.55%, to 8,520.64.
The S&P 500's session low was 3,070.33.
Europe appeared to be the next theater of the global trade war.
France said on Tuesday it was prepared to push the European Union to respond in kind if the United States followed through on its threats to raise tariffs. sought out bonds as a safe haven. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note's yield US10YT=RR was 12.7 basis points lower at 1.709% in afternoon trade. Around noon, it had fallen as low as 1.693%, 14.3 basis points off the close on Dec. 2 and the biggest daily fall since May 2018. bond yields slipped from three-week highs DE10YT=RR , but bond prices are likely to stay under pressure amid renewed risks of early elections or a minority government in the biggest euro zone economy. safe-haven bid was in evidence on currency markets too, with the yen and Swiss franc rallying against the dollar.
In afternoon trading, the dollar fell 0.3% against the yen to 108.60 yen JPY= , after hitting a two-week low of 108.49. The dollar also slid against the Swiss franc, down 0.4% at 0.9870 franc CHF= . Earlier, the greenback hit a four-week trough of 0.9858 franc.
In the energy market, Brent crude LCOc1 futures fell 10 cents to settle at $60.82 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures rose 14 cents to settle at $56.10 a barrel.
http://tmsnrt.rs/2jvdmXl Global currencies vs. dollar
http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh Emerging markets in 2019
http://tmsnrt.rs/2ihRugV MSCI All Country Wolrd Index Market Cap
http://tmsnrt.rs/2EmTD6j
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