ASIA/AUTO INDUSTRY/EU/MEXICO/TARIFFS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Tariff Man has struck again. US stock futures and global stock markets, including shares of Asian and European automakers, tumbled Friday [5-31-19] after President Donald Trump said the United States will impose a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports. Japan’s Nikkei (N225) slumped 1.6%, while South Korea’s KOSPI (KOSPI) was mostly flat. Markets in Europe also opened lower. Britain’s FTSE 100 index fell 0.8%. Stocks in Germany shed 1.3%, and in France they dipped 1%. Stock futures indicated that those losses would extend to the United States. The Dow is poised to fall 230 points, or 0.9%, when markets open. The S&P 500 is tracking similar losses, while the Nasdaq could drop 1.1%. Mexico is one of America’s biggest trading partners and many US companies — including Ford (F) and Walmart (WMT) — rely on the country as a central part of their supply chains. Walmart declined to comment Thursday [5-30-19]. The country is also a regional manufacturing hub for Japanese, South Korean and German automakers that assemble cars in Mexico and ship many of them to the United States.”
–Matt Egan, “US stock futures, global markets sink after Trump threatens tariffs on Mexico,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, May 30, 2019 7:36 am