As the Wall Street Journal attacks the president for ‘not respecting the truth’, traders drop risky assets in rush for safe havens

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Concerns about the Trump administration’s ability to push through key reforms and deliver on a promised fiscal boost turned share markets across the Asia Pacific region into a sea of red on Wednesday.



As investors dumped risky assets and rushed to safe havens such as gold and government bonds, the worries were amplified by a strongly worded editorial in the Wall Street Journal published on Wednesday.

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The newspaper, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, said the US president’s unsubstantiated claims that he was bugged by his predecessor Barack Obama had undermined his credibility, a situation worsened by his failure to back down.

“Yet the President clings to his assertion like a drunk to an empty gin bottle, rolling out his press spokesman to make more dubious claims,” the editorial said.

The editorial board concluded: “If he doesn’t show more respect for the truth, most Americans may conclude he’s a fake president.”

Wall Street suffered its biggest fall for five months on Tuesday and the selling frenzy continued in Asia with Japan and Australia the biggest losers.

David Ingles (@DavidInglesTV) Australia stocks just had their worst day since the US elections. Every industry group down: Miners -2.14%, Financials -2.08%, Energy -1.73% pic.twitter.com/jTVrrnDThN

The Nikkei was down nearly 2% while the ASX200 in Sydney fell 1.6%, its sharpest one day fall since the day of Trump’s election in November, with the big banks and miners among the worst performers.

The jitters looked set to continue into the UK and European session on Wednesday with futures trading pointing to a 0.7% fall in the FTSE100 when it opens.

Investors view the Trump administration’s struggles to push through its healthcare overhaul through congress as a bad omen for promised tax cuts.



Ric Spooner of CMC markets in Sydney said: “Nervousness in international markets was driven by concerns over whether the US administration will be able to achieve the planned wind back of Obamacare and if not, what this means for its broader fiscal strategy.”

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With investor mood decidedly risk-averse, the Japanese yen scored some chunky gains against the US dollar, rising to a four-month high of 111.63. The greenback fell below a key level of 100 against a trade-weighted basket of its peers.



Bonds gained with yields on two-year U.S. debt falling to 1.27% in overnight trades, retreating further from a 7-1/2 year high of 1.38% hit last Wednesday when the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates.

Gold was on track to extend its overnight strong performance with the precious commodity perched comfortably at a two-week high of $1,248 per ounce.

Commodities other than gold, however, have had a rough outing with copper and iron ore prices down by more than one percent each.

Oil prices declined as concerns about new supply overshadowed the latest talk by OPEC that it was looking to extend output cuts.