Asian markets plunge with Japan’s Nikkei diving nearly 8% after big Wall St. meltdown : NPR

BANGKOK — Asian shares nosedived on Monday after the meltdown Friday on Wall Street over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes and the backlash from Beijing.

U.S. futures also signaled further weakness. The future for the S&P 500 lost 2.5% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 2.1%. The future for the Nasdaq lost 3.1%.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost nearly 8% shortly after the market opened. By midday, it was down 6% at 31,758.28. A circuit breaker briefly suspended trading of Topix futures after an earlier sharp fall in U.S. futures.

Among the biggest losers was Mizuho Financial Group, whose shares sank 11.3%. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s stock lost 9.9% as investors panicked over how the trade war may affect the global economy.

Chinese markets often don’t follow global trends, but they also tumbled. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 9.4% to 20,703.30, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 6.2% to 3,134.98.

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings fell 10% and Tencent Holdings, another tech giant, lost 9.4%.

South Korea’s Kospi lost 4.1% to 2,363.82, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 3.8% to 7,377.70, recovering from a loss of more than 6%.

Oil prices sank further, with U.S. benchmark crude down 4%, or $2.50, at $59.49 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up $2.25 to $63.33 a barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 146.70 Japanese yen from 146.94 yen. The yen is often viewed as a safe haven in times of turmoil. The euro slipped to $1.0926 from $1.0962.

On Friday, Wall Street’s worst crisis since COVID slammed into a higher gear. The S&P 500 plummeted 6% and the Dow plunged 5.5%. The Nasdaq composite dropped 5.8%.

Market observers expect investors will face more wild swings in the days and weeks to come, with a short-term resolution to the trade war appearing unlikely.

Nathan Thooft, chief investment officer and senior portfolio manager at Manulife Investment Management, said more countries are likely to respond to the U.S. with retaliatory tariffs. Given the large number of countries involved, “it will take a considerable amount of time in our view to work through the various negotiations that are likely to happen.”

“Ultimately, our take is market uncertainly and volatility are likely to persist for some time,” he said.

The losses came after China matched President Donald Trump’s big raise in tariffs announced last week, upping the stakes in a trade war that could end with a recession that hurts everyone. Even a better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market, usually the economic highlight of each month, wasn’t enough to stop the slide.

So far there have been few, if any, winners in financial markets from the trade war, and China’s response to the U.S. tariffs caused an immediate acceleration of losses in markets worldwide. The Commerce Ministry in Beijing said it would respond to the 34% tariffs imposed by the U.S. on imports from China with its own 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10, among other measures.

The United States and China are the world’s two largest economies.

A big fear is that the trade war could cause a global recession. If it does, stock prices may need to come down even more than they have already. The S&P 500 is down 17.4% from its record set in February.

Trump has said Americans may feel “some pain” because of tariffs, but he has also said the long-term goals, including getting more manufacturing jobs back to the United States, are worth it. He seemed unfazed as millions of investors lost big chunks of their nest eggs.

From Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida, he headed to his golf course a few miles away after writing on social media that “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH.”

The Federal Reserve could cushion the blow of tariffs on the economy by cutting interest rates, which can encourage companies and households to borrow and spend. But Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Friday that tariffs could drive up expectations for inflation and lower rates could fuel still more price increases.

“Our obligation is to keep longer-term inflation expectations well anchored and to make certain that a one-time increase in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem,” Powell said.

Much will depend on how long Trump’s tariffs stick and what kind of retaliations other countries deliver. Some of Wall Street is holding onto hope that Trump will lower the tariffs after prying “wins” from other countries following negotiations.

Stuart Kaiser, head of U.S. equity strategy at Citi, wrote in a note to clients on Sunday that earnings estimates and stock values still don’t reflect the full potential impact of the trade war. “There is ample space to the downside despite the large pullback,” he said.

The Trump administration showed no signs of relenting on the tariffs that have caused trillions of dollars in losses.

Appearing on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” White House trade adviser Peter Navarro echoed the president when he said investors shouldn’t panic because the administration’s approach to trade would usher in “the biggest boom in the stock market we have ever seen.”

“People should just sit tight, let that market find its bottom, don’t get shook out by the panic in the media,” Navarro said.