Shares retreated Friday in Asia, with benchmarks in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea falling more than 2 per cent after Wall Street indexes fell sharply on doubts over the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology.
President Donald Trump’s decision to push ahead with 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada and to double tariffs on Chinese products to 20 per cent also left investors reeling.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 3.4 per cent to 36,939.89, pulled lower by plunging prices for shares in technology companies. Computer chip test equipment maker Advantest sank 9.4 per cent, Disco Corp., another equipment maker, lost 11.1 per cent and Tokyo Electron shed 5.3 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 2.3 per cent to 23,175.49, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 0.9 per cent to 3,358.28.
South Korea’s Kospi gave up 3.2 per cent to 2,538.07.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.1 per cent to 8,174.10.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 sank 1.6 per cent to 5,861.57 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.4 per cent to 43,239.50. The Nasdaq composite tumbled 2.8 per cent to 18,544.42.
The S&P 500 has fallen five out of the past six trading sessions after setting an all-time high last week. Concerns about the U.S. economic outlook have been behind much of the drop, including worries over how tariffs could worsen inflation and mass layoffs of government workers could increase unemployment.
Superstar stock Nvidia, one of Wall Street’s most influential companies that’s been leading the market for years, lost 8.5 per cent after initially rising at the open of trading following a better-than-expected profit report.
Better-than-expected earnings reports have become routine for Nvidia, whose chips are powering the surge into artificial-intelligence technology, but this was the company’s first since China’s DeepSeek shook the entire AI industry by saying it has a large language model that can compete with the world’s best without using the most expensive chips.
A 1.7 per cent rise for Berkshire Hathaway, the company run by famed investor Warren Buffett, was one of the strongest upward forces on the index. The owner of Geico, BNSF railroad and other businesses has built a hoard of unused cash recently.
That could indicate Buffett, who’s famous for buying stocks when prices are low, may not see much worth purchasing in a market that critics say looks too expensive.
Treasury yields swung following Trump’s latest announcement on tariffs. He said the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled for imports from Canada and Mexico. He also said he would add an another 10 per cent tariff to current 10 per cent tariffs on Chinese products on that date.
Such moves could push up prices for U.S. households when inflation has already proven to be stubborn. Wall Street has been hoping the threats are merely leverage that Trump will use to negotiate with other countries before ultimately inflicting less pain on the economy than feared.
But even if that proves to be the case, all the talk on tariffs has already gotten US households to feel more nervous about the economy. That’s dangerous because their strong spending has been a main reason the US economy has avoided a recession.
Such uncertainty also pressures the Federal Reserve, which has few if any tools to help an economy where growth is slowing and inflation is rising at the same time.
For now, at least, the US economy appears to be in solid shape. The government on Thursday left alone its estimate for the US economy’s performance during the last three months of 2024, though it raised its estimate for a measure of inflation during the quarter.
A separate report said more US workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. While the number is at a three-month high, it’s still nowhere close to where it’s been in past recessions.
In other trading early Friday, US benchmark crude oil lost 32 cents to $70.03 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude, the international standard, handed back 33 cents, to $73.24 per barrel.
The US dollar fell to 149.55 Japanese yen from 149.82 yen late Thursday. The euro slipped to $1.0390 from $1.0401.
The article originally appeared on Business Standard.
