China hits back; no relief for routed stock markets

China announced additional tariffs of 348 on US goods, striking back at President Donald Trump and escalating a trade war that has fed fears of a recession and triggered a global stock market rout that showed no sign of slowing on Friday.

- 

In the standoff between the world's two biggest economies, Beijing also announced controls on exports of some rare earths, while Trump doubled down as well, vowing not to change course.

China placed export restrictions on rare earth elements as part of its sweeping response to Trump's tariffs, squeezing supply to the West of minerals used to make weapons, electronics and a range of consumer goods.

China added II US bodies to the "unreliable entity" list, which allows Beijing to take punitive actions against foreign entities, including firms linked to arms sales to democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.

Other impacted nations like Canada have also readied retaliation in a mounting trade war after Trump raised US tariff barriers to the highest levels in more than a century, leading to a plunge in world financial markets.

Investment bank J.P. Morgan estimated a 60% chance of the global economy entering recession by year-end, up from 40% previously. Wall Street was down sharply early Friday afternoon in the wake of China's response, a day after the Trump administration's sweeping levies knocked off $2.4 trillion from US equities.