Asian shares fall after worst Wall Street day since 2020

Shares in Australia and Japan fell at the open. US equity-index futures were steady as trading kicked off in Asia after the S&P 500 declined 4.9% on Thursday and the Nasdaq 100 slumped 5.5%, the biggest drop since 2020 for each. The slump wiped out around $2.5 trillion from the US stock market. Oil sold off and the greenback extended its drop on Friday as yields on the 10-year US Treasury hovered around the 4% mark. Markets are closed in China and Hong Kong.

All in, the much-vaunted America-first trade — buying up assets that win when the US outperforms the rest of the world — is reversing on concern that the steepest increase in American tariffs in a century will hammer economic growth. The trading forms a volatile backdrop for Friday’s US jobs report and a speech by Fed Chair Jerome Powell, which should set the tone for markets already worried about the outlook for the world’s largest economy.

“If these tariffs stick, the economy is going to slow down,” said Mary Ann Bartels at Sanctuary Wealth. “Whether it’s a recession or not, it’s clear that the economy is headed for a slowdown in the US and around the world. There’s no place to hide, but the fixed-income markets.”

Trump has embraced tariffs as a tool to assert US power, revive manufacturing at home and extract geopolitical concessions. Economists say the near-term result of his measures will likely be higher US prices and slower growth, or perhaps even a recession.

Live Events

A gauge of US small-caps, which are more sensitive to US growth, plunged 6.6%