Asian shares dip in an echo of Wall Street’s sell-off amid alarm over Trump’s tariffs

TOKYO: Asian benchmarks dove Tuesday, as worries grew about the ripple effects from President Donald Trump’s tariffs on regional economies and companies.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dove 1.7% in morning trading to 36,382.57. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.9% to 7,888.50. South Korea’s Kospi declined 1.5% to 2,532.29. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.9% to 23,568.83, while the Shanghai Composite lost 0.4% to 3,352.01.

“Heightened anxiety surrounds both existing and incoming U.S. tariffs, along with retaliatory measures from trading partners, and China’s newly effective tariffs will continue to weigh on equities,” said Anderson Alves, a trader at ActivTrades.

Also Tuesday, Japan slightly lowered its October-December economic growth rate to an annual rate of 2.2%, revised from the 2.8% growth given last month, because of revisions in consumer spending and private inventories.

The stock fall in Asia echoed the sell-off on Wall Street, where investors are raising questions on how much pain Trump will let the economy endure through tariffs and other policies in order to get what he wants.

The S&P 500 dropped 2.7% to drag it close to 9% below its all-time high, which was set just last month. At one point, the S&P 500 was down 3.6% and on track for its worst day since 2022. That’s when the highest inflation in generations was shredding budgets and raising worries about a possible recession that ultimately never came.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 890 points, or 2.1%, after paring an earlier loss of more than 1,100, while the Nasdaq composite skidded by 4%.