China swiped a page from the Donald Trump trade playbook Tuesday with similar results for global markets.
Asked if retaliation is forthcoming after the U.S. blacklisted eight tech companies, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters: "stay tuned." S&P 500 traders chose not to wait and the index tumbled toward one of its worst sessions since August.
The situation bears parallels to Aug. 23, when equities plunged as much as 3 percent as traders waited around for five hours for the president to elaborate on a threat to respond to a Chinese tariff escalation. The market hates uncertainty, manufactured or otherwise.