LONDON (Reuters) – World stocks took a hit and the Chinese yuan weakened on Friday as Beijing moved to impose a new security law on Hong Kong after last year’s pro-democracy unrest, further straining fast-deteriorating U.S.-China ties.
FILE PHOTO: A man wearing a protective face mask walks past the London Stock Exchange Group building in the City of London financial district, London, Britain, March 9, 2020. REUTERS/Toby Melville
These tensions plus news that China has dropped its annual growth target for the first time added to concern about the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, knocking oil prices down more than 4% LCOc1 and boosting safe-havens such as U.S. Treasuries US10YT=RR.
European shares were broadly lower .FTSE .FCHI .GDAXI and U.S. stock futures pointed to a weak open on Wall Street ESc1 1YMC1.
That followed a sharp selloff in Asia after China said it would impose new national security legislation on Hong Kong — sparking a warning from U.S. President Donald Trump that Washington would react “very strongly” against an attempt to gain more control over the former British colony.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index .HSI slid more than 5% to a seven-week low, its biggest daily percentage fall since 2015. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific share