Global markets tumble as Trump announces tariffs for China

Threat of trade war escalating

Asian stock markets fell in Friday's trading as the threat of a trade war escalated on the back of President Donald Trump announcing tariffs on up to $60bn in annual Chinese imports and Beijing threatening to hike its own taxes on US imports.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 2.84% in late afternoon trade at 30,188.84, with the decline compounded by plummeting technology stocks, namely gaming giant Tencent, after South African media company Naspers said it would sell a $10bn stake in the group. China's CSI 300 index of mainland-listed stocks was down 2.87% at 3,904.94, and Japan's Topix index dropped 3.2% to 1,664.94. On Thursday the S&P 500 dropped 2.5 per cent to 2,643.69, its biggest one-day fall since February, after Trump said he would apply tariffs to Chinese goods to help redress the US's $375bn trade deficit wit...