The ASX 200 index slumped 2.44% on Tuesday, in the largest one-day decline since October last year and taking the fall since Monday to 4.3% after the 1.9% slide on that day.
That was a fall of around $90 billion in two days.
That was after The People’s Bank of China on Tuesday allowed the Yuan to weaken to its lowest level in 11 years against the US dollar.
That followed Donald Trump’s move to officially label China a ‘currency manipulator’, a significant escalation in the trade war between the two countries.
China further upped the ante yesterday by stopping purchases of US rural products such as grains and oilseeds.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry said China “will not rule out” putting tariffs on US agriculture imports purchased after August 3, two days after President Trump declared he would impose 10% tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese imports.
Elsewhere, sharemarkets in Japan, South Korea, and Singapore finished with losses of between 0.4% to 1.5% on Tuesday, smaller losses than on Monday.
Mainland Chinese markets saw declines of around 1.5% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed a further 0.5%.
US futures in Asia Tuesday night showed a small gain for the opening later in the evening.
