Markets Tumble on Huawei Arrest

Published / Last Updated on 06/12/2018

The arrest of the Huawei Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Wanzhou Meng, in Canada on Monday for allegedly breaking trade sanctions imposed by the US on Iran and now facing extradition from Canada to the US has panicked markets where fears have spread across the globe of reigniting the US/China trade war ending the ‘truce’ agreed just last weekend at the G20 summit in Argentina. 

Huawei Technology is the largest Chinese smartphone/technology firm and now sells products and services across the globe.  Meng is not just CFO and deputy chairwoman but also the daughter of Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, the Chinese equivalent of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs and revered in much the same way in China.  Make no mistake, this is a big insult to the Chinese.

As it stands, at the time of writing (3pm GMT), most markets are down around 3.0% - 4.0% so far today, added to the losses yesterday and compounding losses since May this year (you may remember we cash parked most of our funds at their height in April/May) and only decided to drip feed some back in 3 weeks ago.

Stock Market Indices (Year Highs and Today)

  • FTSE 100 (UK): year high = 7,903, 3pm today = 6,726, % Return 12 months = -14.89%
  • Dow Jones (US): year high = 26,951, 3pm today = 24,546, % Return 12 months = -8.92%
  • Dax (Germany): year high = 13,596, 3pm today = 10,863, % Return 12 months = -20.10%
  • CAC (France): year high = 5,657, 3pm today = 4,805, % Return 12 months = -15.06%
  • Shanghai Composite (China): year high = 3,587, 3pm today = 2,605, % Return 12 months = -27.38%
  • Hang Seng (Hong Kong): year high = 33,484, 3pm today = 26,156, % Return 12 months = -21.89%
  • Nikkei (Japan): year high 24,448, 3pm today = 21,501, % Return 12 months = -12.05%

What are with doing with our own money? .... more in Traffic Light Investment Alerts

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