*
Wall Street futures fall after Trump refuses to rule out
recession risks
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Chinese consumer prices decline at fastest pace in 13
months in
February
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US Treasury yields drop, crude oil declines as tariffs sow
uncertainty
By Kevin Buckland
TOKYO, March 10 (Reuters) - Wall Street futures sank and
the safe-haven yen and Swiss franc strengthened on Monday as
building deflationary pressures in China added to growth worries
from a lacklustre U.S. economy and an escalating global trade
war.
U.S. S&P 500 stock futures pointed 0.5% lower and
Nasdaq futures sagged 0.6% as of 0609 GMT.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng slumped 1.8%, and an index of
mainland Chinese blue chips eased 0.7%.
Taiwan's equity benchmark slipped 0.5%, although
Japan's Nikkei was 0.4% higher after flipping between
small gains and losses.
The yen strengthened some 0.3% to 147.605 per
dollar, while the franc firmed 0.2% to 0.8780 per
dollar.
European markets offered a bright spot though, with
pan-European STOXX 50 futures pointing up 0.55%.
Data on Sunday showed China's consumer price index fell at
the sharpest pace in 13 months in February, while producer price
deflation extended to a 30th straight month.
Beijing pledged more stimulus to boost consumption and
foster innovation in artificial intelligence at the start of the
week-long National People's Congress meeting that runs until
Tuesday.
Elsewhere, U.S. President Donald Trump in a Fox News
interview on Sunday declined to predict whether his tariffs on
China, Canada and Mexico would result in a U.S. recession.
A run of soft U.S. economic data continued on Friday after
monthly figures showed the labour market created fewer jobs than
expected in February, in the first payrolls report capturing
Trump's policies.
"I think it's Trump's cavalier approach to economic policy
that's rattling sentiment," said Kyle Rodda, senior financial
markets analyst at Capital.com.
"Unlike during his first administration, where signs of an
economic slowdown or market correction would see a pivot on
policy, he is genuinely focused on significant, structural
change to the economy - even if it comes at the expense of
short-term growth."
U.S. Treasury yields slid, with the 10-year yield
dropping as much as 6 basis points to 4.257% and the
two-year yield dipping 4.5 bps to 3.956%.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the currency
against six major peers, added 0.1% to 103.82, reversing earlier
small losses.
The euro edged up slightly to $1.0839 and sterling
was little changed at $1.2917.
In his latest warning to Canada, Trump said on Friday that
reciprocal tariffs on dairy and lumber could be imminent.
"For those struggling to keep up, that means that Canadian
tariffs were imposed on Tuesday, tweaked on Wednesday, delayed
on Thursday, then expanded again on Friday," said Michael Brown,
senior research strategist at Pepperstone.
"In that sort of an environment, it is frankly impossible
for any market participant to price risk."
The U.S. president also said he is strongly considering
sanctions on Russian banks and tariffs on Russian products to
try and bring a speedy end to the war in Ukraine.
That has dragged on crude oil, with Brent down 0.5%
at $69.99 a barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude
down by 0.6% at $66.63 a barrel.
Cryptocurrency bitcoin lost as much as 7.2% from
Friday to reach the lowest this month at $80,085.42, and was
last at $82,280.
Optimism about looser regulation and the creation of a
cryptocurrency reserve under Trump lifted the token to an
all-time high of $109,071.86 in January, but it has struggled
since.
The long-awaited executive order on creating the reserve
came on Friday, but disappointed many investors by saying there
would be no additional buying of bitcoin.
(Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by Jamie Freed, Shri
Navaratnam and Lincoln Feast.)