Global stocks sank Wednesday after US President Donald Trump said he was not satisfied with talks that are aimed at averting a trade war with China. Equities were also dented by poor eurozone economic data, and as Trump cast doubt on a planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “Trump (is) continuing to drive uncertainty over global trade,” said analyst Joshua Mahony at trading firm IG. “European markets are following their Asian counterparts lower, as a pessimistic tone from Trump is compounded by downbeat economic data,” he added. Markets had surged Monday after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said they had agreed to pull back from imposing threatened tariffs on billions of dollars of goods, and continue talks on a variety of trade issues. However, Trump has declared that he was “not satisfied” with the status of the talks, fuelling worries that the world’s top two economies could still slug out an economically pain
Simona Halep surged to number one in the world for the first time and into the final of the China Open as she beat Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 6-4. The Romanian’s ousting of Spaniard Garbine Muguruza at the top of the women’s game will be officially confirmed next week when the latest rankings are released. For Halep, who went into the semi-final on Beijing’s outdoor hard courts as world number two, victory was revenge after Ostapenko won their duel in the French Open final earlier this year. The 26-year-old Halep, who is yet to taste Grand Slam success, will face either Caroline Garcia of France or Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in Sunday’s final in the Chinese capital. She was always in control against the world number eight Ostapenko and put herself on the way to victory when she broke the talented 20-year-old in the first game of the first set. Halep, the latest player to take the hot seat at the top of the women’s game this year with Serena Williams becomin