Stocks fell in Asia early Friday, following rising tensions between the U.S. and China and a selloff of tech stocks on Wall Street.
Hong Kong’s Grasp Seng index
HSI,
-2.20%
fell 1.9% whereas the Shanghai Composite
SHCOMP,
-3.86%
sank 2.3% and the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite
399106,
-5.00%
slide 2.9%. South Korea’s Kospi
180721,
-0.71%
declined 0.6%, and benchmark indexes in Taiwan
Y9999,
-0.87%
, Singapore
STI,
-1.47%
and Indonesia
JAKIDX,
-1.20%
all dropped. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200
XJO,
-1.15%
retreated 1.2%.
Markets in Japan had been closed for a vacation.
On Friday, China ordered the U.S. consulate within the western metropolis of Chengdu closed, in retaliation for the U.S. closure of the Chinese language consulate in Houston following allegations of spying.
“For investors, what matters is whether political escalation morphs into economic escalation. So far, there are no hints yet that either side is willing to ramp up the trade war in a global recession,” wrote Stephen Innes, chief world markets strategist at AxiCorp, in a be aware.
Stocks on Wall Street sank Thursday, led by declines by Apple
AAPL,
-4.55%
and Microsoft
MSFT,
-4.34%
.
The Dow Jones Industrial Common
DJIA,
-1.30%
closed 353.51 factors decrease, or 1.3%, to 26,652.33, whereas the S&P 500 index
SPX,
-1.23%
completed down 40.36 factors, or 1.2%, at 3,235.66. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
-2.28%
misplaced 244.71 factors, or 2.3%, to 10,461.42.
