Asian markets fell on Monday, deepening a global stock market slump triggered by US President Donald Trump's trade war and China's strong response to unexpectedly high tariffs.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei fell more than 8% immediately after the open, while the broader Topix index last traded more than 6.5% lower after recovering from its biggest losses.
In mainland China, where markets reopened after a public holiday, the Shanghai Composite Index last traded 6.7% lower. The blue-chip CSI300 index lost 7.5%. In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng index opened more than 9% lower. Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent each fell more than 14% and 10% respectively.
South Korea's Kospi fell more than 4.8% shortly after opening. Trading was halted for five minutes when a circuit breaker designed to prevent panic selling was triggered.
Asian markets are following the worst two-day stretch for Wall Street stocks in five years. U.S. stock futures fell on Sunday evening after two sessions of selling that wiped out more than $5.4 trillion in market value.
US stocks fell sharply on Friday after China retaliated sharply, imposing a 34% tariff on all US goods, raising fears of an escalating and damaging trade war fueled by ongoing trade tension between the world's two largest economies.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has said he will not back down from his sweeping tariffs on imports from most of the world unless countries regulate their trade with the US.
"I can't say what's going to happen to the markets. But our country is much stronger ," US President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
When asked what his threshold was for a market crash, the tycoon replied: "I think your question is so idiotic. I don't want anything to crash. But sometimes you have to take medicine to solve something. This week I spoke to a lot of Europeans, Asians, around the world. They are dying to make a deal" on tariffs.
Trump has said he doesn't want to bring down markets on purpose . "No, but I want to fix the deficit that we have with China and the EU and other nations, and they're going to have to do that. And if they want to talk about it, I'm open to talking. But otherwise why would I want to talk?" the US president declared. (A2 Televizion)
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