Asian Stocks Decline at Open as US Pressures China
Asian stocks started on a risk-off mood Tuesday after US President Donald Trump’s move to curb Chinese investments and proceed with tariffs on Canada and Mexico prompted investors to trim positions. A decline in US stocks at the end of trading also hurt sentiment.
Shares in Australia and Japan opened lower while futures pointed to a 2% drop in Hong Kong. A gauge of Chinese shares in the US had its biggest drop in more than four months after Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s American depositary receipts closed down 10%, the biggest decline since October 2022. The yield on 10-year Treasuries slid 1 basis point to 4.4% in early Asian trading while gold touched a record Monday.
Sentiment in the broader market soured after Trump rolled out a memorandum telling a key government committee to curb Chinese spending on tech, energy and other strategic American sectors. That’s threatening to undo a rally in Chinese technology shares after optimism over DeepSeek and President Xi Jinping’s meeting with corporate leaders including Alibaba’s Jack Ma, had sent a key gauge to a three-year high.
Stocks
S&P 500 futures were little changed as of 9:15 a.m. Tokyo time
Hang Seng futures fell 2.2%.
Japan’s Topix fell 0.6%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.9%.
Euro Stoxx 50 futures fell 0.3%.
Source: Bloomberg
