Asian markets eased following Trump’s steel tariffs announcement

Equity indexes in Asia were mostly down on Friday, with steel producers and automaker leading decliners following the US announcement on tariffs for this industry.

US President Donald Trump promised the US will impose tariffs of 25 percent for steel and 10 percent for aluminum. The measure applies for all countries.

Wall Street top three indexes came under pressure as investors feared responses from US trade partners over the announcement.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended 420.22 points lower at 24,608.98. The S&P 500 eased 1.4 percent to finish at 2,677.67, while the Nasdaq composite dropped 1.3 percent to 7,180.56.

Japan, Canada, South Korea and the European Union have already expressed discontent with Trump’s decision, pointing out countermeasures will be put in place soon.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index eased 479.33 points, or 2.18 percent, with steel-related stocks leading decliners, while automakers also saw big losses. Honda and Toyota were down 3.29 percent and 2.05 percent respectively. Technology companies like Sony also headed south.

A similar dynamic was seen in South Korea, where the Kospi declined about 0.8 percent, with heavyweight Samsung Electronics falling more than one and a half percent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index felt the pressure too, losing by 1.50 percent, while mainland benchmarks such as the Shanghai composite and the Shenzhen composite also fell in the day.

On the data front, the US core PCE, Fed’s favorite inflation measure, came in line with market expectations at a monthly growth rate of 0.3 percent and 1.5 percent year-over-year.

In other news, personal spending for January also met forecast at 0.2 percent. The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing PMI was above estimation at 60.8 points.

<<< Asian Stock Indexes >>>

Australia ASX S&P -47.30 -0.78% 6,028.40

Shanghai Composite -14.89 -0.45% 3,258.86

Hong Kong Hang Seng -453.23 -1.46% 30,591.02

Japan Nikkei 225 -542.83 -2.50% 21,181.64

Taiwan TSEC 50 Index -87.62 -0.81% 10,698.17

<<< Next in Europe >>>

Focus will shift to Germany’s retail sales for January at 07:00 GMT.

<<< Next in United States >>>

Ahead in today’s session, traders will be looking at Michigan University’s consumer expectations and consumer sentiment gauges for February as of 15:00 GMT.

FortFS