Asian stocks slump amid US recession fears

Stocks markets across Asia sank on Tuesday following mounting fears of a serious economic downturn in the world’s largest economy, as President Donald Trump ramped up a tariff war against its biggest trade partners.

Stocks markets across Asia sank on Tuesday following mounting fears of a serious economic downturn in the world’s largest economy, as US President Donald Trump ramped up a tariff war against its biggest trade partners. Trump’s refusal to rule out the possibility of a US recession on Sunday has rattled Wall Street investors. Now, those fears have extended to the Asia-Pacific region, with the MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down more than 1%. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 plunged nearly 3% in the morning session but had recovered some of those losses by the lunchtime break. South Korea’s KOSPI slid as much as 2.5%. Taiwan’s TAIEX was at one point almost 3% down. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped as much as 1.7%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down less than 1%. Initially welcomed by Wall Street, Trump’s second presidency has led to weeks of market turmoil since his inauguration. Anxiety has built up over a potentially worsening economic outlook as Trump upends trade relations by piling tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, while slashing government spending. In early February, he threatened to impose a 25% duty on all imports from Mexico and most goods from Canada, but he has delayed its implementation until early next month. Last week, Trump doubled tariffs on all Chinese imports to 20%. China has responded with a fresh round of retaliatory tariffs, covering US agriculture imports, which took effect on Monday.