Asian stocks were broadly lower in early trading Friday, after a report that President Donald Trump was pushing ahead with his plan for tariffs on an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese goods and threatened to withdraw the U.S. from the World Trade Organization.
Read: Trump threatens to pull U.S. from WTO
Trump’s WTO criticism helped push the yen USDJPY, +0.03% higher overnight, pushing Japan’s Nikkei NIK, -0.17% down 0.2%. The index has risen for eight straight days, and is up 1.4% in August coming into the final trading day of the month. Export-reliant companies fell, with Honda Motor 7267, -1.46% down 1.5% and Kobe Steel 5406, -1.38% off 1.4%.
Hong Kong stocks were sharply lower, with the Hang Seng Index HSI, -0.99% down 1.4%. China’s announcement that it would limit the number of new online games kicked Tencent 0700, -4.64% lower. Meanwhile, oil giant PetroChina 0857, -3.95% was down 3.8% following its after-the-bell earnings report. Embattled telecom-equipment maker ZTE 0763, +0.79% rose 2% after showing first-half revenue growth.
Chinese stocks dropped at the prospects of further U.S. import tariffs. The Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, +0.22% was down 0.9% and the Shenzhen Composite 399106, -0.21% was off 1.2%, even as PMI data for August held up.
Korea’s Kospi SEU, +0.04% , which Thursday barely saw its nine-day run of gains come to an end, was off a further 0.1%. Steelmaker Posco 005490, -2.56% fell more than 2%, while Samsung 005930, +0.52% was down about 0.1%. Down Under, markets retreated slightly, with Australia’s ASX 200 XJO, -0.26% down 0.2% and New Zealand’s NZX-50 NZ50GR, -0.32% seeing a 0.4% decline.
Singapore’s stock benchmark STI, -0.11% was down only a fraction, while Taiwan Y9999, -0.85% , Malaysia FBMKLCI, -0.05% and Indonesia JAKIDX, -0.76% were down almost 1%.
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