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Asian stocks were largely flat Wednesday as investors took a cautious stance following the latest developments in U.S.-China trade tensions.
The Nikkei Stock Average NIK, -0.18% , helped by a weaker yen, and New Zealand’s NZX-50 NZ50GR, +0.24% were among markets eking out gains of around 0.1%, while benchmark stock indexes in Australia XJO, -0.09% , South Korea SEU, -0.63% , Singapore STI, -0.51% and Malaysia FBMKLCI, -0.16% were down about 0.2%.
While late buying of tech stocks helped lift U.S. stocks overnight, the Trump administration’s details of plans for steep tariffs on $50 billion of imports from China gave investors in Asia another reminder of the continued risk of a trade war.
China’s commerce ministry said Beijing was preparing to adopt countermeasures of “the same intensity and same scale” as the U.S. The comment came after the U.S. unveiled 25% levies on a range of Chinese imports from high-tech industries like medicine, aviation and semiconductor machinery to intermediate goods like machinery and chemicals.
The Trump administration had flagged the areas it planned to target and the latest announcement fleshed out the specifics. “Markets have mostly been able to digest the news with the sectors targeted and the schedule already known,” said Tai Hui, chief market strategist for Asia Pacific at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
The latest tensions could encourage investors to focus on stocks that are more dependent on domestic demand in Asia, he said.