The global stock selloff that started on Monday continued into Wednesday’s Asian trading session as traders show concern about global growth. Tuesday was another difficult trading day on Wall Street with energy shares falling on lower oil prices and retailers struggling after weak earnings and fears about slowing global economic growth. The Nasdaq closed at a seven-month low on Tuesday while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 saw their weakest trading day since October.
Asian markets were pressured on Wednesday by continuing trade fears after Washington criticized Beijing on Tuesday for failing to change its “unfair, unreasonable” trade policies. The condemnation of Beijing came from an investigation into China’s intellectual property and technology transfer policies which was a precursor to a meeting between U.S. and Chinese leaders at the end of this month. Most analysts are pessimistic about the potential for a deal to be reached at the upcoming meeting.
As of 2:02 p.m. HK/SIN all major Asian indexes were trading lower, with the exception of the Shenzhen Composite which was up 0.16 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.22 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 0.04 percent and Australia’s ASX 200 was 0.51 percent lower. South Korea’s Kospi was also down 0.29 percent. The sea of red followed another brutal day of losses on Wall Street on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 closing down 1.82 percent, the Nasdaq 1.70 percent lower and the Dow closing down 2.21 percent. These losses followed a day of significant losses on Monday.