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It was an unlucky day in the Burmese calendar, farmer Yar Swe Kyin warned her husband in July, begging him not to go out to check on their crops.Hours later he was dead, killed by one of the countless landmines laid by both sides in Myanmar’s three brutal years of civil war.In the evening, “I heard an explosion from the field,” she told AFP at her home in the hills of northern Shan state.”I knew he had gone to that area and I was worried.”She had urged her husband to stay home because the traditional Burmese calendar, which is guided by lunar cycles, planetary alignment and other factors, marked it out as inauspicious.”He didn’t listen to me,” she said.”Now, I only have a son and grandchild left.”Decades of sporadic conflict between the military and ethnic rebel groups have left Myanmar littered with deadly landmines.That conflict has been turbocharged by the junta’s 2021 coup, which birthed dozens of newer “People’s Defence Forces” now battling to topple the military.Landmines and other remnants of war claimed more victims in Myanmar than in any other country last year, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), with the Southeast Asian country overtaking war-ravaged Syria and Ukraine.- ‘Trees were spinning’ -At least 228 people — more than four a week — were killed by the devices and 770 more were wounded in Myanmar in 2023, it said in its latest report Wednesday.In eastern Kayah state, a short journey to collect rice to feed his wife and children left farmer Hla Han crippled by a landmine, unable to work and fearing for his family’s future.He had returned home after junta troops had moved out from his village and stepped on a mine placed near the entrance to the local church.”When I woke up I didn’t know how I had fallen down and only got my senses back about a minute later,” he told AFP.”When I looked up, the sky and trees were spinning.”Now an amputee, the 52-year-old worries how to support his family of six who are already living precariously amidst Myanmar’s civil war.”After I lost my leg to the land mine, I can’t work anymore. I only eat and sleep and sometimes visit friends — that’s all I can do,” he said.”My body is not the same anymore, my thoughts are not the same and I can’t do anything I want to… I can eat like others, but I can’t work like them.”His daughter Aye Mar said she had begged him not to go back into the village.”When my father lost his leg, all of our family’s hopes were gone,” she said.”I also don’t have a job and I can’t support him financially. I also feel I’m an irresponsible daughter.”- ‘Nothing is the same’ -Myanmar is not a signatory to the United Nations convention that prohibits the use, stockpiling or development of anti-personnel mines.The ICBL campaign group said there had been a “significant increase” in anti-personnel mine use by the military in recent years, including around infrastructure such as mobile phone towers and energy pipelines.The church in Kayah state where Hla Han lost his leg is still standing but its facade is studded with bullet wounds.A green tape runs alongside a nearby rural road, a rudimentary warning that the forest beyond it  may be contaminated. Some villagers had returned to their homes after the latest wave of fighting had moved on, said Aye Mar.”But I don’t dare to go and live in my house right now.”She and her father are just two of the more than three million people the United Nations says have been forced from their homes by fighting since the coup.”Sometimes I think that it would have been better if one side gave up in the early stage of the war,” she said.But an end to the conflict looks far off, leaving Hla Han trying to come to terms with his fateful step.”From that instant you are disabled and nothing is the same as before.”

Asian investors struggled Wednesday to track a positive lead from Wall Street as they assess the prospect of an escalation in the Russia-Ukraine war, Donald Trump’s second presidency and the outlook for US interest rates.They were also keenly awaiting the release of earnings from chip behemoth Nvidia later in the day, which many see as a bellwether of the tech sector and AI demand that have helped power markets to multiple record highs this year.Traders were treading carefully this week amid uncertainty after Trump’s re-election and as he picks his cabinet, with several China hawks up for key positions fanning worries of another trade war between the economic superpowers.The tycoon has pledged to ramp up tariffs on imports, with China particularly in his sights, but observers warn that such a move — along with planned tax cuts — could relight still stubborn inflation.That has dampened hopes for several Federal Reserve interest rate cuts next year.Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine has burst back into the thoughts of traders as Moscow vowed to react “accordingly” after saying Kyiv had fired its first US-made long-range missile into Russian territory.Washington this week said it had cleared Kyiv to use the US-supplied Army Tactical Missile System against military targets inside Russia — a long-standing Ukrainian request.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the attack showed Western countries wanted to “escalate” the conflict, adding that “we will be taking this as a qualitatively new phase of the Western war against Russia”.President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Tuesday lowering the threshold for using nuclear weapons, which the White House, Britain and the European Union called “irresponsible”.Growing worries that the war will ramp up to another, more dangerous level weighed on sentiment in Europe but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose for a second straight day in New York.Asia, however, was mostly in the red, with Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, Wellington and Taipei in retreat. Seoul, Manila and Jakarta bucked the trend.The main focus of attention Wednesday is the upcoming earnings from Nvidia, the world’s most expensive listed company and market darling.The company has rocketed 200 percent this year — and an eye-watering 2,670 in the past five years — on the back of an unprecedented surge in demand for all things linked to artificial intelligence.There are hopes it will live up to expectations and provide some insight into its new chips. The firm’s shares rose nearly five percent on Tuesday.”Nvidia’s earnings will serve as a major test, given its status as the largest company by market cap and a cornerstone of the AI revolution,” said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo Markets.”The central question: Is the AI theme robust enough to sustain investor enthusiasm, or is it on shaky ground.”Finalto.com’s Neil Wilson said investors will be “hungry for guidance on the new chips”. “Nvidia’s Blackwell chip should become available in the first quarter of next year and could bring in between $5 billion and $8 billion, according to (investment bank) Piper Sandler,” he said.Bitcoin was sitting around the $92,000 mark after hitting a new all-time peak above 94,031 on Tuesday.- Key figures around 0230 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.5 percent at 38,242.35 (break)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.1 percent at 19,640.50Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,344.39Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0601 from $1.0599 on TuesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.2690 from $1.2682Dollar/yen: UP at 154.85 yen from 154.67 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 83.52 pence from 83.54 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.2 percent at $69.53 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.2 percent at $73.20 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 43,268.94 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 8,099.02 (close)

Hundreds of employees of French cognac maker Hennessy, part of the LVMH group luxury empire, went on strike on Tuesday to protest measures the brand plans to employ to circumvent Chinese tariffs imposed in a spat with the EU.Some 500-600 staff in cognac’s home Charente region in southwestern France were protesting at an experimental plan to export the drink in vats, rather than bottles, which will be subject to additional taxes estimated at 35 percent, France’s CGT and FO unions said.”Management told us they wanted to do tests on exporting the products in vats with a view to future bottling in China by a service provider” and no longer in France, Frederic Merceron, FO representative at Hennessy, told AFP.”We can well imagine the impact on employment,” he added, describing the news as a “cold shower.” “This is a first for a major house. It’s a real spanner in the works,” said Matthieu Devers of the CGT union, predicting that other cognac producers would follow suit.The strike at the Hennessy plant in the town of Cognac, which employs 1,100 people, is open-ended, though a source close to Hennessy, asking not to be named, said that “dialogue is possible.”Since October 11, China has required importers of European brandies — of which cognac represents 95 percent of the total — to submit a deposit or a bank guarantee letter with Chinese customs authorities.The measure is part of what Beijing describes as an anti-dumping investigation. But the move is widely seen as retaliation for the EU slapping tariffs on electric cars imported from China, which is the second biggest export market for cognac.Devers said a first test delivery to be carried out by the end of 2024 would ascertain if the quality of the drink is maintained after transport.He described as “bizarre” a suggestion that materials including glassware, labels, corks and boxes be shipped to China with the drink then bottled there.France’s umbrella cognac producers association BNIC said it did not want to comment on the individual strategies of companies.But it added: “It should be noted that while waiting for a negotiated solution, and in view of the deterioration that we have noted, certain houses could be forced to explore all avenues that would allow them to maintain the presence on the Chinese market.”The cognac industry, which is heavily dependent on exports, now fears it will be targeted in the United States, its biggest market, following the election of Donald Trump, who plans to step up customs duties across the board.

Stock markets fell in Europe but finished mostly higher in New York Tuesday as markets weighed worries about escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine.Moscow vowed to react “accordingly” after saying Ukraine had fired its first US-made long-range missile onto Russian territory, after being cleared to do so by US President Joe Biden. “The news rattled markets this morning, driving European stocks lower and reinforcing bearish momentum” against the euro, said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at Forex.com.US shares also fell at the opening but then clawed back, lifted by strong guidance from retailer Walmart and expectations of positive earnings from chipmaker Nvidia.While the Dow finished in the red, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended in positive territory.”We’re kind of on our own continent over here,” Kim Forrest of Bokeh Capital Partners said of the US investor mindset.”In time, we would be impacted by an escalation of tensions. But today we’re going to shrug that off, because tomorrow we get Nvidia.”All the main indexes in Europe closed in the red, though off their lows for the day.Still, it was a marked reversal of the optimism seen on Wall Street on Monday, when stocks shrugged off uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariff plans to push higher, with the momentum carrying over into the Asian trading day.”Caution returned early Tuesday, this time as events thousands of miles from Wall Street raised geopolitical risk concerns,” said Joe Mazzola, a strategist at Charles Schwab.On the corporate front, retail giant Walmart jumped three percent as it boosted guidance ahead of what it sees as a positive Christmas season.Nvidia was up almost five percent. The AI chip giant, often seen as a bellwether stock for the technology sector, reports its quarterly earnings after the market closes Wednesday.  In Europe, shares in German industrial giant Thyssenkrupp rose almost 12 percent after the group said it expected a return to profit in its next financial year — despite posting a hefty full-year loss for the second year in a row.Nestle slid two percent after new chief executive Laurent Freixe announced a plan to slash costs and have a standalone water and beverages business.Equities have seen big swings since Trump was elected US president this month, as investors balance the impact of corporate tax cuts against a potential trade war with China and others.Any resulting surge in inflation would give a headache to policymakers at the US Federal Reserve, who are still fighting to bring prices under control.- Key figures around 2145 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 43,268.94 (close)New York – S&P 500: UP 0.4 percent at 5,916.98 (close)New York – Nasdaq: UP 1.0 percent at 18,987.47 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 8,099.02 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.7 percent at 7,229.64 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.7 percent at 19,060.31 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 percent at 38,414.43 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.4 percent at 19,663.67 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.7 percent at 3,346.01 (close)Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0599 from $1.0598 on MondayPound/dollar: UP at $1.2682 from $1.2678Dollar/yen: UP at 154.67 yen from 154.66 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 83.54 pence from 83.59 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.3 percent at $69.39 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP less than 0.1 percent at $73.31 per barrel

Pro-democracy Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai will on Wednesday take the stand in his collusion trial, testifying in court for the first time despite five previous trials in almost four years.Lai’s case is one of the most prominent prosecuted under the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020, with Western countries and rights groups demanding his release. The 76-year-old founder of the now-shuttered tabloid Apple Daily is accused of colluding with foreign forces, a charge that could carry a sentence of up to life in prison. His testimony comes with Hong Kong’s political freedoms already under the spotlight, after a court jailed 45 democracy campaigners for subversion in the city’s largest national security trial on Tuesday.Lai’s case centres around his newspaper’s publications, which supported huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019 and criticised Beijing’s leadership.Lai has been behind bars since December 2020, and concerns have been raised around his health. “The case of Jimmy Lai is not an outlier, it’s a symptom of Hong Kong’s democratic decline,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a Monday statement. “Hong Kong’s treatment of Jimmy Lai — and more broadly of independent media and journalists — shows that this administration is no longer interested in even a semblance of democratic norms.”Hong Kong and Beijing have refuted the criticism, condemning Lai as “a voluntary political tool of foreign forces trying to curb China through Hong Kong”. Since the prosecution opened in January, it has alleged that on multiple occasions Lai asked the United States and other countries to impose sanctions “or engage in other hostile activities” against China and Hong Kong.- ‘Media business as platform’ -Lai faces one count of “conspiracy to publish seditious publications” as well as two counts of conspiracy to foreign collusion.  The case against him revolves around 161 articles published in Apple Daily, as well as his own interviews and social media postings. The newspaper was forced to close in 2021 after police raids and the arrests of its senior editors. The prosecution accused Lai and six Apple Daily senior executives of using the media business as a platform to “stir up opposition to the government… and to collude with foreign countries”.Dozens of local and foreign politicians and scholars — including former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — were named by the prosecution as Lai’s “agents”, “intermediaries” or “collaborators”. Lai is also accused of supporting two young activists in lobbying for foreign sanctions via a protest group called “Stand With Hong Kong”.The six executives and two activists have pleaded guilty, with five of them testifying against Lai. – Concerns for health -Last month, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told parliament that Lai, who holds British citizenship, was “a priority” for his Labour government. Starmer raised the issue in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday. Lai’s son had previously said “much stronger” support from the British government was needed as Lai’s health “could get much worse at any moment”.A legal team led by a senior British rights lawyer has filed a number of complaints to the United Nations concerning arbitrary detention and prolonged solitary confinement.On Sunday, the Hong Kong government condemned the legal team for “spreading misinformation”, saying that Lai himself had requested to be kept apart from other inmates.  “The unfounded remarks… are completely fact-twisting and are merely a despicable political maneuver with malicious intention,” the government said in a statement.Robertsons, a Hong Kong law firm representing Lai in the trial, has also brushed off some of the allegations.”Mr Lai wishes to make known that he has been receiving appropriate medical attention for conditions suffered by him, including diabetes,” the firm said in a statement in September.”He has access to daylight through the windows in the corridor outside his cell, albeit he cannot see the sky. He exercises for an hour every day in a secure area.”

US President-elect Donald Trump nominated Howard Lutnick, the co-chair of his transition team, as his commerce secretary on Tuesday — a choice set to bring a tougher stance on China from the incoming administration.Lutnick will also lead the country’s tariff and trade agenda, with “additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative,” Trump said in a statement.Tariffs are a key part of Trump’s economic agenda and he has promised sweeping duties on all imports when he returns to the White House.Lutnick is chief executive of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald and a Trump ally originally tipped as a front-runner for treasury secretary.But he was instead named to helm Commerce, a smaller department that works to boost American industry and has a key role in policy to shore up the US semiconductor sector and reduce reliance on Asia.Under President Joe Biden, the Commerce Department stepped up export controls on critical technologies like quantum computing and semiconductor manufacturing goods, taking aim at access by adversaries like Beijing.Trump’s administration could harden this stance.Lutnick has expressed support for a tariff level of 60 percent on Chinese goods alongside a 10 percent tariff on all other imports.Both are among proposals that Trump has floated, with the Republican taking aim at countries which have been “ripping us off for years.”In Trump’s first term he engaged in a tariffs war with China, with the US Trade Representative’s office issuing duties on imports from the world’s second-biggest economy.Lutnick also previously lamented the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States and offshoring to China.”I’m all in with Donald Trump,” Lutnick told podcaster Anthony Pompliano last month.In the same interview, he slammed electric cars as “coastal elite nonsense” and blamed China for being the source of fentanyl in the United States.The deadly drug, many times more powerful than heroin, is responsible for tens of thousands of overdose deaths a year.”China is attacking America from its guts,” he charged.- Crypto support -Lutnick was initially tipped to head the Treasury Department but a tussle over the position spilled into the public eye last weekend.Trump’s health secretary pick Robert F. Kennedy Jr. expressed support for Lutnick, saying on social media that “Bitcoin will have no stronger advocate” than him.The world’s richest man Elon Musk also threw his support behind Lutnick for Treasury chief while calling the other top contender, hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, “a business-as-usual choice.””Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another,” said Musk, who Trump has tapped to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency.Lutnick recalls losing hundreds of employees in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, a tragedy narrowly he avoided as he was taking his son to school.Besides Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick heads financial technology firm BGC Group and real estate services firm Newmark Group.He graduated from Haverford College and has a degree in economics, according to his biography on Cantor’s website.As co-chair of Trump’s transition team, Lutnick has been identifying new hires for the president-elect’s administration.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for Beijing and Berlin to develop ties with a “strategic” and “long-term” perspective Tuesday as he met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Rio de Janeiro, state media said.”China and Germany are both major countries with significant influence,” Xi told Scholz on the sidelines of the G20 summit, according to Beijing’s state news agency Xinhua.”The two countries need to view and develop bilateral relations from a long-term and strategic perspective,” Xi said.Scholz last met Xi in April in Beijing, where he pressed China’s president to use his influence on Russia to end the war in Ukraine.After the meeting Scholz told reporters he had pressed home to Xi that the alleged deployment of North Korean soldiers by Russia risks worsening the conflict.Scholz said that the reported presence of North Korean troops fighting for Russia “is a further escalation,” adding: it was “something which should worry everyone in Asia.”A German government source in Berlin last week told AFP the two leaders would discuss the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, China-Germany relations and conditions for global fair trade.Chinese state media said Xi had expressed a desire to “consolidate the China-Germany comprehensive strategic partnership.”And he said Beijing was “willing to continue writing the story of mutual cooperation, and make our world a peaceful, harmonious and prosperous family,” Xinhua reported.- Intertwined economies -China was the largest trading partner last year for Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, which is expected to shrink for a second year in a row.German industry has been hit by elevated energy prices in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and by rising competition from Chinese manufacturers.The challenges have been particularly acute for Germany’s car manufacturers, who have made huge profits in China but now face local competition, particularly in the growing market for electric vehicles.On Tuesday, Xi told Scholz that China would “continue to provide broad market opportunities for German companies,” state media said.”China regards Germany as an important partner in advancing Chinese modernization,” he said.The importance of China for the German economy has led Scholz to try and chart a middle course during his time in office. The German leader has not matched the harsh trade rhetoric coming out of Washington and some European capitals, instead seeking to be a critical partner to Beijing.The meeting could be Scholz’s last with Xi, as Germany heads towards new elections in February.Scholz’s Social Democrats currently trail in the polls, well behind the conservative CDU-CSU bloc. If confirmed on election day, such a result would likely see Scholz depart as chancellor.burs-jsk/nro

Stock markets fell in Europe and were mixed on Wall Street as fears of escalation of Russia’s war against Ukraine prompted investors to retreat.Moscow vowed to react “accordingly” after saying Ukraine had fired its first US-made long range missile onto Russian territory after being cleared to do so by US President Joe Biden. “The news rattled markets this morning, driving European stocks lower and reinforcing bearish momentum” against the euro, said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at Forex.com.”We are getting close to very dangerous territories,” he said.US shares fell at the opening but then clawed back some of their losses, lifted by strong guidance from retailer Walmart and expectations of positive earnings from chip-maker Nvidia.The Dow Jones index was lower, the wider S&P 500 little changed and the tech-heavy Nasdaq higher in late morning trading.All the main indexes in Europe closed in the red, though off their lows for the day.Still, it was a marked reversal of the optimism seen on Wall Street on Monday, when stocks shrugged off uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariff plans to push higher, with the momentum carrying over into the Asian trading day.”Caution returned early Tuesday, this time as events thousands of miles from Wall Street raised geopolitical risk concerns,” said Joe Mazzola, a strategist at Charles Schwab.Hong Kong and Shanghai in particular closed higher on hopes China will unveil more stimulus aimed at kickstarting its economy and property sector in particular.On the corporate front, retail giant Walmart jumped 4 percent as it boosted guidance ahead of what it sees as a positive Christmas season.Nvidia was up almost three percent. The AI chip giant, often seen as a bellwether stock for technology sector, reports its quarterly earnings after the market closes Wednesday.  In Europe, shares in German industrial giant Thyssenkrupp rose almost 12 percent after the group said it expected a return to profit in its next financial year — despite posting a hefty full-year loss for the second year in a row.Nestle slid two percent after new chief executive Laurent Freixe announced a plan to slash costs and have a standalone water and beverages business.Equities have seen big swings since Trump was elected US president this month, as investors balance the impact of corporate tax cuts against a potential trade war with China and others.Any resulting surge in inflation would give a headache to policymakers at the US Federal Reserve who are still fighting to bring prices under control.The potential inflationary impact of Trump’s threatened tariffs has boosted US bond yields and led traders to scale back their bets on how many more interest-rate cuts the Fed will announce in the coming year.Oil prices were little changed as traders balanced concerns about the Ukraine war with the more reassuring news that Iran is taking steps to halt expanding its stockpile of enriched uranium. – Key figures around 1645 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 43,250.11 pointsNew York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.1 percent at 5,8970.74New York – Nasdaq: UP 0.5 percent at 18,892.26London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 8,099.02 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.7 percent at 7,229.64 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.7 percent at 19,060.31 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 percent at 38,414.43 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.4 percent at 19,663.67 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.7 percent at 3,346.01 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0581 from $1.0600 on MondayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2665 from $1.2678Dollar/yen: DOWN at 154.43 yen from 155.04 yenEuro/pound: UP at 83.54 pence from 83.57 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.3 percent at $68.97 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.3 percent at $73.09 per barrel

The third and final one-day international between New Zealand and Sri Lanka on Tuesday was abandoned after only 21 overs of play due to persistent rain in Pallekele. As the rain refused to relent, the umpires officially called off the game at 19:45 local time (1415 GMT).The game was a dead rubber with Sri Lanka already having clinched the series 2-0, following their thrilling three-wicket win on Sunday. New Zealand, batting first after winning the toss, seemed set for a decent total.  A solid 88-run partnership for the second wicket between Will Young and Henry Nicholls propelled them to 112 for 1 in 21 overs before it started pouring. Young was unbeaten on 56 off 68 balls. The right-handed batsman’s half-century, his ninth in one-day internationals, featured eight boundaries.  At the other end, Nicholls was 46 not out off 51 balls. Sri Lanka managed an early breakthrough when skipper Charith Asalanka pulled off a sensational diving catch to dismiss opener Tim Robinson, handing Mohamed Shiraz his maiden international wicket.  But New Zealand consolidated from there on. Having achieved an unassailable lead heading into the match, the hosts rested Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Kamindu Mendis and Asitha Fernando.Left-arm spinner Dunith Wellalage was also given a break, with seam-bowling all-rounder Chamindu Wickramasinghe making his debut. New Zealand, too, shuffled their lineup, bringing in pacer Adam Milne and debutant all-rounder Zakary Foulkes in place of Nathan Smith and Jacob Duffy. Foulkes, however, did not get a chance with the bat or the ball.  The one-day series followed a T20 series that ended in a 1-1 stalemate. 

Stock markets fell across the board in Europe and the United States on Tuesday as fears of further escalation of Russia’s war against Ukraine prompted investors to retreat.Moscow vowed to react “accordingly” after saying Ukraine had fired its first US-made missile onto Russian territory after being cleared to do so by US President Joe Biden.Threats of a nuclear response by Russia to a conventional attack sent further chills through trading rooms, as Russia also vowed to defeat its neighbour.”The news rattled markets this morning, driving European stocks lower and reinforcing bearish momentum” against the euro, said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at Forex.com.”We are getting close to very dangerous territories,” he said.It was a marked reversal of the optimism seen on Wall Street on Monday, when stocks shrug off uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tax and tariff plans to push higher, with the momentum carrying over into the Asian trading day. Hong Kong and Shanghai in particular closed higher on hopes China will unveil more stimulus aimed at kickstarting its economy and property sector in particular.On the corporate front, shares in German industrial giant Thyssenkrupp rose about eight percent after the group said it expected a return to profit in its next financial year — despite posting a hefty full-year loss for the second year in a row.Nestle slid 2.1 percent after new chief executive Laurent Freixe announced a plan to slash costs and have a standalone water and beverages business.Equities have seen big swings since Trump was elected US president this month, as investors gauge the impact of tax cuts and a potential trade war with China and others.Any resulting surge in inflation would give a headache to policymakers at the US Federal Reserve who are still fighting to bring prices under control.Traders are scaling back their bets on how many more interest-rate cuts the Fed will announce in the coming year.Looking ahead, markets are waiting for the quarterly earnings release from AI chip giant Nvidia on Wednesday, which could determine whether the optimism bubbling through technology sectors will prove sustainable.- Key figures around 1445 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 0.7 percent at 43,081.29 pointsNew York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.4 percent at 5,870.02New York – Nasdaq: DOWN 0.2 percent at 18,757.69London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 8,074.40Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 1.4 percent at 7,176.81Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 1.4 percent at 18,9930.43Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 percent at 38,414.43 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.4 percent at 19,663.67 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.7 percent at 3,346.01 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0586 from $1.0600 on MondayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2652 from $1.2678Dollar/yen: DOWN at 154.09 yen from 155.04 yenEuro/pound: UP at 83.68 pence from 83.57 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.3 percent at $69.40 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.3 percent at $73.52 per barrel