Australian share market expected to shed amid new US trade war salvo with China

The Australian share market is expected to shed billions when markets open on Monday after US President Donald Trump reignited a trade war with China.

Mr Trump announced an additional 100 per cent tariff on Chinese imports from November 1, after saying he was frustrated with China’s tightening of rare earth material exports, including those used in auto, electronic, and defence industries.

Mr Trump’s threats came late on Friday Australian time, after the Australian share market had closed for the weekend.

The renewed feud between the two largest world economies led to a 2.71 per cent fall in the S&P 500 on Friday, a group of 500 leading companies in the US, which many Australians hold as part of their superannuation.

Futures in the ASX 200, a list of Australia’s main companies, are down 0.9 per cent to 8896 giving an indication of the direction of travel on Monday. On Friday, they closed at 8958.3.

This is still significantly higher than the crash after Mr Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs were announced, where the market fell to 7169.20.

Under China’s new rules, the Government would restrict access to rare earth minerals by requiring foreign companies to seek special approval to ship them abroad.

The Chinese Government will also introduce permit requirements on exports of technologies used in mining, smelting, and recycling of rare earth minerals.

Export requests of any products used in military goods would be rejected.