Asian shares fall for third consecutive session, tracking US losses

By Jason Scott and Aya Wagatsuma

 

Asian shares fell for a third consecutive session Tuesday, tracking US losses that dragged the Nasdaq 100 to its worst day since 2022, as anxiety mounts that tariffs and government firings will torpedo growth in the world’s largest economy.

 

Australian, Japanese and South Korean shares slumped. Equity-index futures for the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 slipped in early Asian trading, extending a decline on Monday as Wall Street tempered bullish views while demand for recession havens boosted sovereign bonds. Treasuries advanced while a gauge of the dollar slipped.

 

Market sentiment is turning downbeat as investors become increasingly concerned about US economic growth stalling after President Donald Trump kicked off a tariff war and continued to cut spending while shaking up decades-old geopolitical relationships. That’s a remarkable shift in mood less than two months into Trump’s presidency, which was once welcomed on Wall Street sending stocks, Bitcoin and the dollar higher.

 

“We’ve gone from animal spirits to what are the odds of a recession,” said Gina Bolvin, president of Bolvin Wealth Management Group. “This is a headline-driven market; one that could change in an hour. Sit tight. Buckle up. We finally have the correction we were waiting for, and long-term investors will be rewarded again.” 

 

Despite the global risk-off mood, mainland Chinese investors bought an unprecedented amount of Hong Kong stocks on Monday, continuing to boost their holdings amid a tech-driven rally this year. The stocks have been on a tear this year, thanks to the emergence of an artificial-intelligence model from startup DeepSeek that was considered a game-changer in the industry.

 

In the US Monday, the S&P 500 dropped 2.7 per cent. The Nasdaq 100 lost 3.8 per cent. In the megacap space, Tesla Inc. sank 15 per cent while Nvidia Corp. drove a closely watched gauge of chipmakers to the lowest since April.

 

The yield on 10-year Treasuries slid nine basis points to 4.21 per cent on Monday on bets that an economic slowdown would force the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates.. The dollar rose 0.2 per cent. About 10 high-grade companies delayed US bond sales on Monday. Oil fell to a six-month low.

 

The latest turmoil on Wall Street marks an abrupt about-face for markets, where the dominant driver of the last few years had been the surprising resilience of the US economy even as growth weakened overseas. That’s shaking the aura of economic and market exceptionalism that has dominated for more than a decade. 

 

Stocks 

• S&P 500 futures fell 0.4 per cent as of 9:19 a.m. Tokyo time
• Japan’s Topix fell 1.9 per cent
• Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.3 per cent
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures fell 1.5 per cent

  Currencies 

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.1 per cent
• The euro rose 0.1 per cent to $1.0846
• The Japanese yen rose 0.3 per cent to 146.84 per dollar
• The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.2572 per dollar

  Cryptocurrencies 

• Bitcoin fell 1.3 per cent to $78,244.38
• Ether fell 0.2 per cent to $1,865.1

  Bonds 

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 4.20 per cent
• Japan’s 10-year yield advanced five basis points to 1.570 per cent
• Australia’s 10-year yield declined five basis points to 4.39 per cent

Commodities 

• West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.5 per cent to $65.70 a barrel
• Spot gold was little changed