CHINA/ECONOMY/TARIFFS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WTO: “Wall Street stocks were lower on Friday, after market fell in Europe and Asia, as investors weighed a brewing trade war between China and the United States that could hobble an otherwise healthy global economy. Markets in New York began the day higher, but began slipping through the morning. By midday all three major indexes — the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, Dow Jones industrial average and Nasdaq composite — had all lost ground…Traders in particular have focused on the risks to the global economy from tit-for-tat restrictions announced by the United States and China, along with increasingly protectionist moves by Washington elsewhere, as well — the United States has brought in tariffs on steel and aluminum, albeit with exemptions for key allies, and marginalized the World Trade Organization…Europeans, in particular, took only small comfort from the Trump administration’s decision to exempt the European Union from the steel and aluminum tariffs. Business managers and political leaders fear that Europe could be caught in the crossfire of a trade war between two economic superpowers.”
–Jack Ewing and Alexandra Stevenson, “Wall St. Turns Lower Amid Fears of U.S.-China Trade War,” The New York Times online, Mar. 23, 2018