Stocks in Asia were mostly lower overnight after tech giant Nvidia (NVDA) announced it had been dragged into Donald Trump’s trade war.
The chip maker’s shares have fallen around 7% in pre-market trading after it revealed that the US had imposed stricter controls on its exports of one of its computer chips designed for use in artificial intelligence.
Stocks in China led the regional declines after the Chinese government reported the world’s second-largest economy’s growth slowed to 1.2% in the first three months of the year from 1.6% in the last quarter of 2024.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (^HSI) dropped 2.1%, while the Shanghai Composite index (000001.SS) managed to eke out a 0.3% gain. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index (^N225) shed 1% on the day.
South Korea’s Kospi (^KS11) fell 1.2%, while in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 (^AXJO) ended flat
Across the pond on Wall Street, the three main indexes closed down on a rare quiet day for financial markets.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 0.2% to 5,396.63, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) lost 0.4%, finishing at 40,368.96, and the Nasdaq (^IXIC) edged down by less than 0.1pc, closing at 16,823.17.
In the bond market, the yield on benchmark 10-year US Treasury notes fell to 4.339% from 4.352% late on Monday.
