Stocks fall, yen gains on Trump trade war, China deflationary woes

By Kevin Buckland

TOKYO, March 10 (Reuters) - Wall Street futures sank and the safe-haven yen and Swiss franc strengthened early on Monday as building deflationary pressures in China added to growth worries from a fading US economy and an escalating global trade war.

US S&P 500 stock futures pointed 0.5% lower and Nasdaq futures sagged 0.6% as of 0137 GMT.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng eased 0.1%, as did an index of mainland Chinese blue chips .

Taiwan's equity benchmark slipped 0.4%, although Japan's Nikkei  was 0.2% higher after flipping between small gains and losses.

The yen strengthened some 0.6% to 147.245 per dollar, while the franc  rose 0.4% to 0.8773 per dollar.

Data on Sunday showed China's consumer price index fell at the sharpest pace in 13 months in February, while producer price deflation extended to a 30th straight month.

Beijing pledged more stimulus to boost consumption and foster innovation in artificial intelligence at the start of the week-long National People's Congress meetings that run until Tuesday.

Elsewhere, U.S. President Donald Trump in a Fox News interview on Sunday declined to predict whether his tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico would result in a U.S. recession.

A run of soft U.S. economic data continued on Friday after monthly figures showed the labour market created fewer jobs than expected last month, in the first payrolls report capturing Trump's policies.

"I think it's Trump's cavalier approach to economic policy that's rattling sentiment," said Kyle Rodda, senior financial markets analyst at Capital.com.

"Unlike during his first administration, where signs of an economic slowdown or market correction would see a pivot on policy, he is genuinely focused on significant, structural change to the economy - even if it comes at the expense of short-term growth."

U.S. Treasury yields slid, with the 10-year yield dropping as much as 6 basis points (bps) to 4.257% and the two-year yield dipping 4.5 bps to 3.956%.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the currency against six major peers, eased 0.1% to 103.59.

The euro gained 0.3% to $1.0866 and sterling rose 0.2% to $1.2946.

In his latest warning to Canada, Trump said on Friday that reciprocal tariffs on dairy and lumber could be imminent.

The U.S. president also said he is strongly considering sanctions on Russian banks and tariffs on Russian products to try and bring a speedy end to the war in Ukraine.

That has dragged on crude oil, with Brent down 0.4% at $70.11 a barrel on Monday and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude down by a similar margin to $66.76 a barrel.

Gold, another traditional haven asset, added 0.15% to $2,915 an ounce.

Cryptocurrency bitcoin lost as much as 7.2% from Friday to reach the lowest this month at $80,085.42.

Optimism about looser regulation and the creation of a cryptocurrency reserve under Trump lifted the token to an all-time high of $109,071.86 in January, but it has struggled since.

The long-awaited executive order on creating the reserve came on Friday, but disappointed many investors by saying there would be no additional buying of bitcoin.

(Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by Jamie Freed & Shri Navaratnam)