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
A powerful 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea on Saturday, US seismologists said, but there was no tsunami warning or immediate reports of damage.
The quake struck at 9:23pm local time (1123 GMT) at a depth of 67 kilometres (41 miles), about 175 kilometres from the New Britain town of Rabaul, the US Geological Survey said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the quake did not pose a tsunami risk.
The Pacific nation was hit by a 7.5-magnitude quake on February 26 that buried homes and triggered landslides in its highlands region, killing at least 125 people.
PNG sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a hotspot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates.
Its mountainous and remote terrain means it often takes several days for information about damage from quakes to reach officials and aid agencies.
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