Trade tariff escalation continues. Reuters report that

  • Trump says he has asked US trade representative to identify $200 billion in Chinese goods for additional tariffs at a rate of 10 percent

  • Trump adds that if China increases tariffs again the US will respond with tariffs on another $200bn in Chinese goods

Trump is in deep shit with his moves to separate children from their mothers and fathers, so this latest action may be an attempt to move the headlines to some other topic. I dunno if he will be successful.

Meanwhile though, markets will take note of tariff headlines. AUD is particularly vulnerable to headlines on trade restrictions against Chian, its dropped on this latest.

  • AUD/USD lower.
  • And 'risk off' flows into yen exacerbate the AUD woes, AUD/JPY has dropped big time:

AUD/USD has hit a one-year low

Its not just the AUD, S&P500 futures on 'overnight' Globex trade are down nearly half a percent