Panic selling gripped global markets on Monday, as US President Donald Trump refused to budge on his swingeing tariffs despite China retaliating and global recession warnings growing louder.

Trump denied Sunday that he was intentionally engineering a selloff and insisted he could not foresee market reactions, saying he would not make a deal with other countries unless trade deficits were solved.

“Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” he said of the market pain that has seen trillions of dollars wiped off the value of US companies since the beginning of his tariff rampage.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, he added that he had sought to resolve the issue with world leaders over the weekend, claiming “they’re dying to make a deal.”

China retaliated against the United States on Friday, announcing it would impose tit-for-tat tariffs of 34% on all US goods from April 10 after Asian markets closed last week.

With the trade war escalating, stocks in Asia took a heavy hammering when trading resumed.

Trillions of dollars have been wiped off stocks worldwide, and on Monday Asian equities took an even heavier hammering as investors moved to safer assets.

In Japan the Nikkei was off an eye-watering 6.5 percent, falling almost eight percent in early trade. Hong Kong, Hang Seng plunged nearly 10 percent, the Shanghai Composite more than four percent, and Singapore 8.5 percent.

Source: AFP