GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks fall, bonds climb amid concern over longer trade war

(Updates with closing U.S. market levels)
By David Randall and Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - A comment by President Donald
Trump that a deal to end the U.S.-China trade war might not come
until after the November 2020 election weighed on global stock
markets on Tuesday, sending investors to the safety of bonds.
Trump's saying the trade war may last another year came a
day after his administration announced new tariffs on steel from
Brazil and Argentina and threatened duties of up to 100% on
French goods because of a digital services tax that Washington
says harms U.S. tech companies. All that appeared to dash hopes that an agreement with China
could be reached before another round of U.S. tariff hikes kicks
in on Dec. 15 and "triggered a lot of high-frequency traders to
sell stocks," said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T
Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.
"But later on in the day, we saw buying come in," he said,
since "the underlying fundamentals are still favorable." They
include a potential re-acceleration in earnings growth, stable
economic growth and low interest rates.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS shed
0.6%.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell
280.23 points, or 1.01%, to 27,502.81, the S&P 500 .SPX lost
20.67 points, or 0.66%, to 3,093.2 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 47.34 points, or 0.55%, to 8,520.64.
The S&P 500's session low was 3,070.33.
Europe appeared to be the next theater of the global trade
war.
France said on Tuesday it was prepared to push the European
Union to respond in kind if the United States followed through
on its threats to raise tariffs. Investors sought out bonds as a safe haven. The benchmark
10-year U.S. Treasury note's yield US10YT=RR was 12.7 basis
points lower at 1.709% in afternoon trade. Around noon, it had
fallen as low as 1.693%, 14.3 basis points off the close on Dec.
2 and the biggest daily fall since May 2018. German bond yields slipped from three-week highs
DE10YT=RR , but bond prices are likely to stay under pressure
amid renewed risks of early elections or a minority government
in the biggest euro zone economy. The safe-haven bid was in evidence on currency markets too,
with the yen and Swiss franc rallying against the dollar.
In afternoon trading, the dollar fell 0.3% against the yen
to 108.60 yen JPY= , after hitting a two-week low of 108.49.
The dollar also slid against the Swiss franc, down 0.4% at
0.9870 franc CHF= . Earlier, the greenback hit a four-week
trough of 0.9858 franc.
In the energy market, Brent crude LCOc1 futures fell 10
cents to settle at $60.82 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate
(WTI) crude CLc1 futures rose 14 cents to settle at $56.10 a
barrel.

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Global assets in 2019 http://tmsnrt.rs/2jvdmXl
Global currencies vs. dollar http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
Emerging markets in 2019 http://tmsnrt.rs/2ihRugV
MSCI All Country Wolrd Index Market Cap http://tmsnrt.rs/2EmTD6j
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