Asian Markets Track Wall Street Lower

(RTTNews) - Asian stock markets are trading mostly lower on Wednesday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with steep losses in Japan, Singapore and Taiwan as traders remain concerned about rising tensions between the U.S. and China amid the new reciprocal tariffs on imports in to the US. The steeper-than-expected tariffs ignited fears over an economic recession globally. Asian markets closed mostly higher on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said approximately 70 countries have approached the White House about trade talks, with Japan purportedly getting priority status.

China has vowed to "fight to the end" after Trump threatened to impose an additional 50 percent tariff on Chinese goods unless the country withdraws its new 34 percent tariff on U.S. goods. Beijing said the U.S. threat to escalate tariffs against China is a "mistake on top of a mistake" and amounts to blackmail.

A White House official told CNBC the effective tariff rate on China will spike to 104 percent at midnight on April 9, when Trump's other "reciprocal tariffs" are also set to take effect.

Australian shares are trading significantly lower on Wednesday, reversing the strong gains in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling well below the 7,500 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness across most sectors led by mining and technology stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 75.20 points or 1.00 percent to 7,434.80, after hitting a low of 7,349.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 80.50 points or 1.05 percent to 7,623.90. Australian stocks ended sharply higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is slipping almost 3 percent, Rio Tinto is declining almost 4 percent, Mineral Resources is plunging almost 10 percent and Fortescue Metals is tumbling more than 4 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy is losing 2.5 percent, Santos is declining almost 4 percent and Beach energy is slipping almost 3 percent, while Origin Energy is edging up 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is declining 3.5 percent, Appen is losing almost 1 percent, WiseTech Global is slipping more than 2 percent, Xero is down almost 2 percent and Zip is tumbling more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Westpac and ANZ Banking are edging up 0.1 to 0.2 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank is adding almost 1 percent and National Australia Bank is gaining 1.5 percent.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining, Gold Road Resources and Northern Star Resources are losing more than 1 percent each, while Resolute Mining is slipping more than 3 percent and Newmont is edging down 0.1 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.599 on Wednesday.

The Japanese stock market is trading sharply lower on Wednesday, reversing the strong gains in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling 2.6 percent to well below the 32,200 level, with weakness across all sectors led by technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 32,147.04, down 865.54 points or 2.62 percent, after hitting a low of 31,708.21 earlier. Japanese stocks ended slightly higher on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is slipping almost 6 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing more than 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 3 percent and Toyota is down almost 2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is plunging almost 8 percent, Tokyo Electron is declining almost 4 percent and Screen Holdings is losing almost 3 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is sliding more than 5 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is declining more than 4 percent and Mizuho Financial is slipping almost 5 percent.

Among the major exporters, Canon is losing almost 2 percent, Mitsubishi Electric slipping 2.5 percent, Sony is declining more than 3 percent and Panasonic is down almost 3 percent.

Among other major losers, Toray Industries is plummeting more than 12 percent, while Sumitomo Pharma and Konica Minolta are plunging more than 8 percent each. Teijin and Mitsubishi Chemical are sliding almost 8 percent each, while Dentsu Group and Disco are declining more than 7 percent each. Furukawa Electric, Fujikura, Lasertec, Sumitomo Electric and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are slipping almost 7 percent each, while Credit Saison and DeNA are losing more than 6 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major gainers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 145 yen-range on Wednesday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan are lower by between 1.4 and 2.1 percent each, while New Zealand, China and South Korea are lower by between 0.1 to 0.5 percent each. Indonesia is bucking the trend and is up 0.7 percent.

On the Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher early in the session on Tuesday but showed a substantial downturn over the course of the trading day. The major averages pulled back well off their highs of the session and tumbled firmly into negative territory.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the close but still posted significant losses on the day. The Nasdaq plunged 335.35 points or 2.2 percent to 15,267.91, the S&P 500 slumped 79.48 points or 1.6 percent to 4,982.77 and the Dow slid 320.01 points or 0.8 percent to 37,645.59.

Meanwhile, the major European markets showed strong moves back to the upside. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index shot up by 2.7 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both surged by 2.5 percent.

Crude oil prices once again came under pressure over the course of the trading day on Tuesday after showing a strong move to the upside early in the session. West Texas Intermediate for May delivery tumbled $1.12 or 1.9 percent to $59.58 a barrel, its lowest level since April 2021.