Trade wars: Markets slide back as China blasts US's 'intimidation and coercion' – live business | Business

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling over coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.

It's a new month, but the same old issues. The markets are starting June as they end up with volatility.

Over the weekend, Beijing stepped up against Donald Trump by accusing Washington of "intimidation and coercion".

Vice Commerce Secretary Wang Shouwen blasted America's decision to blacklist Chinese firms such as Huawei, saying:

"The China-US economic and trade consultations have been severely frustrated by the US tariff increases [the US’s] Chinese companies on the entities list. "

In a new white paper on trade, China blames the US government for the failure to reach a trade deal, claiming:

Resorting to intimidation and coercion, it persists with exorbitant demands. . . and insisted on [that infringe on] China's sovereign affairs in the deal. "

The white paper also lays out how to trade the two economic powers has backfired. Bloomberg has more details:

The paper contends that the trade actions have done so much harm to the U.S. economy by increasing production costs, damaging growth and people's livelihoods and creating barriers to U.S. exports to China. In short, Trump's tariffs are not helping, China concluded.

"It is possible that the latest U.S. tariffs on China, far from resolving issues, will only make things worse for all sides," according to the white paper.

And rather than backing down, China has just fulfilled its pledge to increase tariffs on $ 60bn of American goods, in response to the latest US tariffs on Chinese goods.

Asian markets have reacted badly – Japan's Nikkei has shed almost 1% today, with China's Shanghai Composite also dipping. European and US markets are also expected to open in the red, ahead of new health care on their factory sectors today.

The oil price – a gauge of growth expectations – has taken a tumble too; Brent crude is now just $ 61.30 per barrel, the lowest since mid-February.

Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on Mexico.

Jim Reid of Deutsche Bank told customers this morning that it has increased the risk that America is stepping up its trade dispute with Europe.

One of the additional worries would be that if the US has been so quick to escalate the trade war on these two countries [Mexico and China] the bar must be a bit lower to carry out a trade badault on Europe at some point in the future. Interesting times.

The latest PMI reports, due today, will be a big hit from the trade war last month.

The agenda

• 9am TSB: Eurozone factory PMI report for May
• 9.30am BST: UK factory PMI report for May
• 3pm BST: US factory PMI for May