Stocks are being crushed hard right now in European trading with the DAX down nearly 5% and CAC 40 down over 4% on the day. China’s counter-tariffs have delivered another blow to risk sentiment and that’s reverberating across broader markets. S&P 500 futures are also down well over 2% now:

In FX, USD/JPY is one of the big movers with the pair falling from 146.30 to 145.50 on the day as 10-year Treasury yields sliding to just under 3.90%. But the aussie and kiwi are also being crushed heavily with AUD/USD now down over 2% to 0.6190. The pair held on to the 0.6200 mark in late February and early March but is under threat to see that break today.

Going back to the equities space, tech shares continue to be the ones bearing the brunt of the declines here. Nasdaq futures are now down 2.6% on the day.

At this point, a really bad set of numbers from the US jobs report may really send things over the edge more so than what we’re seeing. Should we start talking about margin calls, anybody?

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.