Skip to main content

World markets dive as Trump sparks trade, North Korea worries

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...

US secretary of state to visit Nigeria next week.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will travel to Africa next week, the State department said Thursday, in his first visit to the continent since President Donald Trump entered office.
Tillerson will travel to “N’Djamena, Chad; Djibouti, Djibouti; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Nairobi, Kenya; and Abuja, Nigeria,” between March 6 and 13, department spokesperson Heather Nauert announced Thursday.
The visit follows a scandal which erupted when President Donald Trump allegedly branded African nations “shithole countries” in January.
 
Tillerson will meet with leaders in each country, along with African Union leadership based in Addis Ababa.
“He plans to discuss ways we can work with our partners to counter terrorism, advance peace and security, promote good governance, and spur mutually beneficial trade and investment,” Nauert added.
During a November meeting with African Union ministers in Washington, Tillerson outlined only general policy goals regarding the continent. Meanwhile, so far, Trump has shown little interest in Africa.
Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama traveled to Ghana six months after taking office with a message that Africa’s destiny is in the hands of its own people.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

World markets dive as Trump sparks trade, North Korea worries

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...

APDA, PDP, commend INEC for “timely” release of 2019 elections’ timetable.

The Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA) and the Peoples Democratic Party have commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) “for early release of timetable and schedule of activities for the 2019 general elections.” The political parties gave the commendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday. The APDA National Publicity Secretary, Mr Tosin Adeyanju, described the timetable and schedule of activities as a welcome development for political parties. Adeyanju said that the early release of the timetable would enable political parties to have enough time to prepare for the elections. He added that it had also cleared all rumours and speculations, especially date of primaries and other pre-election activities for political parties. He noted that “we in APDA believe that the timetable would afford political parties the opportunity and enough time to adequately prepare and plan for the elections. “This ...

Hoodlums vandalise APC secretariat in Rivers, one person dies.

One person died in Port- Harcourt on Friday as unidentified persons, suspected to be political thugs vandalised the Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) located at the Old Government Residential Area in Port Harcourt, Rivers. The Rivers Command of the Nigerian Police quickly intervened by deploying tear-gas to stop further destruction of the party’s secretariat. Gun shots were fired into the air to scare riotous members and in the process one death was recorded. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that APC members aspiring for various positions at the Ward levels had come to the party secretariat to pick their forms before the incident. A Ward Chairmanship aspirant told NAN that he was unable to pick the form after paying the required amount through the bank. He said that trouble occurred after a long wait by the aspirants. Read More:  Ward congress: Lagos CP reads riot act to APC members “As you can see, most of us that are vying f...