Asian markets plunge as Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dives nearly 8% after the big meltdown on Wall St
BANGKOK (AP) — 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 4.2% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 3.5%. The future for the Nasdaq lost 5.3%.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost nearly 8% shortly after the market opened and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 tumbled more than 6%.
South Korea’s Kospi lost 4.4%.
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.
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%.
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. Stocks for all but 14 of the 500 companies within the S&P 500 index fell Friday. The price of crude oil tumbled to its lowest level since 2021. Other basic building blocks for economic growth, such as copper, also saw prices slide on worries the trade war will weaken the global economy.
China’s response to 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.
The central question looking ahead is: Will the trade war 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 seemed unfazed. 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 the Fed may have less freedom to move than it would like.
