Asia stocks fall as trade war jitters continue

Stock markets across Asia slumped again on Wednesday, as investors get increasingly nervous about a potential US-China trade showdown.

Japan’s Nikkei Index dropped for the second straight day, falling more than 1.5% in early trading, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and the Shanghai Composite Index both opened around 1% lower after closing slightly higher the previous day.

Wednesday’s slide comes on the eve of trade talks in Washington between China and the United States, which have been clouded by the Trump administration’s renewed threat to increase tariffs on Chinese goods.

A delegation led by China’s top trade negotiator, Liu He, will head to the United States for talks on Thursday, a day later than originally planned and just days after President Trump said he would raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese exports. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer confirmed the duty increases on Monday.

“With the trade talks restarting…we will need to see concrete progress and quickly in order to lift Trump’s threat,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda. “Until then, it’s hard to see the monsoon clouds hanging over Asia’s regional markets clearing.”

The uncertainty also hit US markets hard on Tuesday, with the Dow marking its second-worst trading day of the year with a 473-point plunge. The S&P 500 was down 1.7% and the Nasdaq fell 2%.

European stocks fared poorly too. The FTSE 100, DAX and CAC 40 all closed 1.6% lower. The pan-European Stoxx 600 fell 1.4%.

US stock futures, however, were pointing slightly higher on Wednesday.