Washington [US], March 12: Stock markets across Asia fell across the board yesterday following a sharp sell-off earlier this week on Wall Street amid the US economy facing the risk of recession due to the trade war.
US President Donald Trump refused to comment on the prospect of a US recession due to the trade war. The refusal meant he could not guarantee that the US economy would not fall into recession, which triggered a sell-off on Wall Street earlier this week. The anxiety spread to investors in the Asia-Pacific (APAC).
Red wave spreads to APAC
In Asia, stock markets were in the red, with Japan's Nikkei index of 225 leading companies and Taiwan's TWII index falling about 3%, marking their lowest levels since September last year. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell more than 1%, according to Reuters.
Similar developments occurred in markets in Sydney, Singapore, Seoul, Wellington, Mumbai, Bangkok and Manila. Even Chinese stocks were not immune to the red tide. Shanghai's CSI 300 index fell about 1%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.5%.
Regional tech stocks were among the hardest hit. Japanese tech giants Sony and Hitachi fell more than 4.5% on the day, while Softbank fell 4.4%. Taiwan-based TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker and Apple supplier Foxconn, fell more than 3% on the same day. South Korea's Samsung fell more than 2%.
European stock futures also fell, with Germany's DAX futures down 0.8% and the Eurostoxx index (which represents Europe's 50 largest and most popular stocks) down 0.9%, suggesting the risk of further sell-offs in the coming days.
Risk to the US economy
The global stock market's performance reflects investors' concerns after US President Donald Trump "declared war" with the country's largest economic partners. When asked whether the leader expected a recession this year, Trump refused to comment directly, instead acknowledging that the US economy was facing a "transitional period", Fox News reported on March 10.
AFP quoted Nigel Green, founder and CEO of financial consultancy deVere Group (headquartered in Dubai, UAE), warning that the US market is entering a correction phase, which could fall about 10% from its recent high. Meanwhile, according to Shaun Murison, market analyst at online trading platform IG (headquartered in the UK), investors are increasingly concerned about economic instability and the risk of recession from the trade policies applied by President Trump's administration.
On March 10 (US time), the Nasdaq index experienced its deepest one-day decline since September 2022, while the Dow and S&P 500 indexes witnessed their worst day of the year so far. The Dow index fell 2.08%, the S&P 500 fell 2.7% and the Nasdaq plunged 4% due to a sharp decline in Elon Musk's Tesla shares.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
