San Francisco Frontiers - Dollar plunges, stocks wobble over trade war turmoil

Trump triggered a massive market sell-off last week by announcing universal tariffs, and this week he sparked a huge but short-lived rally by pausing higher duties against scores of countries.

But he kept China in his crosshairs, hitting Chinese goods with a 145 percent tariff.

Beijing said Friday that it would hit back with 125 percent duties on American products, but suggested it would not retaliate further in the future.

Wall Street indexes opened in the red Friday but rose shortly thereafter as investors sought to make sense of the latest trade war news, with the broad-based S&P 500 edging up 0.3 percent around midday.

European markets also had a roller-coaster trading day, with Frankfurt closing 0.9 percent lower and Paris down 0.3 percent. London rose 0.6 as data showed the UK economy grew far more than expected in February.

"The main driver of the renewed market pressure was an increased focus on the US-China escalation," said Jim Reid, managing director at Deutsche Bank.

"Neither the US nor China are showing signs of backing down, with President Trump expressing confidence in his tariff plans," Reid said.

The dollar plunged to its lowest level against the euro in more than three years as investors fled what is typically considered a key haven currency, though it later pared some of its losses.

In a more worrying sign of cracking investor confidence in the US economy, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury bill rose sharply to 4.5 percent as its price tumbled.

John Higgins, chief markets economist at Capital Economics, said it was a sign of "concern that China might dump its vast holdings of Treasuries" even if that risked losses for Beijing and driving the yuan higher against the dollar.

With Treasuries being sold off, sending their yields higher and making US debt more expensive, there is a fear of a bigger exodus from American assets down the line.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Friday rejected the notion that US Treasuries were no longer a haven.

"If you're going to invest your money in something, America is still a pretty, pretty good place in this turbulent world," Dimon said in a conference call after his bank reported hefty first-quarter profits and revenue.

- Gold record -

The weaker dollar and the rush for safety sent gold to a record high above $3,220 an ounce.

Oil prices rose slightly after huge falls on Thursday.

"There remains considerable uncertainty around the impact of tariffs on economies and company earnings, and that could keep markets volatile for some time," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

Investors were also turning to more routine economic and business data, with the release of inflation data and corporate earnings.

Official figures showed US producer inflation fell sharply last month before the tariffs took effect.

JPMorgan Chase reported first-quarter profits of $14.6 billion, up nine percent from the period last year.

In Asia, the Tokyo stock market shed three percent -- a day after surging more than nine percent -- while Sydney and Seoul were also in the red.

Hong Kong and Shanghai rose as traders focused on possible Chinese stimulus measures.

There were gains in Taipei and Ho Chi Minh City stocks as the leaders of Taiwan and Vietnam said they would hold talks with Trump.

- Key figures around 1600 GMT -

New York - Dow: UP 0.2 percent at 39,665.48 points

New York - S&P 500: UP 0.3 percent at 5,284.24

New York - Nasdaq: UP 0.5 percent at 16,465.20

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.6 percent at 7,964.18 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.3 percent at 7,104.80 (close)

Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.9 percent at 20,374.10 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 3.0 percent at 33,585.58 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 1.1 percent at 20,914.69 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.5 percent at 3,238.23 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1349 from $1.1183 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3041 from $1.2954

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 143.63 yen from 144.79 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 86.94 pence from 86.33 pence

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.7 percent at $63.75 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.7 percent at $60.48 per barrel

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E.Walker--SFF