Financial markets in Asia were slammed on Monday, as renewed anxiety over the rising odds of a severe economic downturn triggered a deep regionwide sell-off in stocks.
Trading was extremely volatile throughout the day in Asia. Among the markets hardest hit were Hong Kong, where stocks plunged around 12 percent, and Taiwan, which was about 10 percent lower. Stocks in mainland China were down about 8 percent.
Benchmark indexes in South Korea tumbled about 5 percent, while Australia fell more than 4 percent. In Japan, declines were so sharp that the country’s exchange operator briefly halted trading in Japanese stock futures on Monday morning. The country’s Nikkei 225 index finished down more than 7 percent.
Over the weekend, analysts had circulated notes warning that Asia could be particularly vulnerable to a tit-for-tat exchange of retaliatory tariffs between China and the United States. Many countries in the region, including Japan and South Korea, count both nations as their top trading partners.
On Friday, China struck back at the United States with a 34 percent tariff on a number of American exports, matching a 34 percent tariff that Mr. Trump imposed on China last week. President Trump doubled down on Sunday evening, saying that he would not ease his tariffs on other countries “unless they pay us a lot of money.”
With hopes fading that the Trump administration will be willing to soften blanket tariffs imposed on all of the United States’ trade partners, analysts and investors in Asia said they were unable to discern a bottom to the market slides.
