HONG KONG (AP) — Stocks in Asia were mostly down Tuesday, after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on all U.S. imports of steel and aluminum.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined 1.06% to 21,294.86, while the Shanghai Composite dipped 0.12% to 3,318.06. Japan markets were closed for a national holiday. Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia remained largely unchanged and South Korea’s KOSPI was up 0.71% to 2,539.05.
Early European trading held steady, with France’s CAC 40 down 0.05%, while Germany’s DAX gained 0.02%. Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.05%.
Trump said over the weekend he would announce 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, with more import duties to come later in the week.
Fear around tariffs has been at the center of Wall Street’s moves recently, and experts say the market likely has more swings ahead. The price of gold, which often rises when investors are feeling nervous, climbed again Monday to top $2,930 per ounce and set another record.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slid 82 points, about 0.18%. The S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures respectively fell 0.28% and 0.36%.
But Trump has shown he can be just as quick to pull back on threats, like he did with 25% tariffs he had announced on Canada and Mexico, suggesting they may be merely a negotiating chip rather than a true long-term policy.
Trump has pressed ahead with 10% tariffs on Chinese goods, while China has retaliated by imposing tariffs on U.S. coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars.
“Beijing’s restraint in targeting only a small sliver of U.S. goods is deemed to be a deliberately less than proportionate response to avert an escalatory tit-for-tat spiral,” said Vishnu Varathan, head of macro research at Mizuho.
