Stock market today: Asian shares sag as worries over US-China trade weigh on outlook for the region

[February 25, 2025]  By ELAINE KURTENBACH

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares sagged Tuesday in Asia as worries over U.S.-China trade friction weighed on the outlook for the region.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 1.4% to 38,237.79 after markets in Japan reopened from a holiday on Monday.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng gave up 1.5% to 22,999.44, while the Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.8% to 3,346.04.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.7% to 8,251.90.

South Korea's Kospi lost 0.7% to 2,630.29 after the Bank of Korea cut its benchmark interest rate to 2.75% from 3%, its third cut in four meetings as it moves to support the slowing economy.

Taiwan's Taiex fell 1.2% and the Sensex in India gained 0.3%.

Trump said Monday that tariff hikes on imports from America's neighbors Canada and Mexico will move ahead after a one-month delay. The president has openly antagonized multiple U.S. trading partners recently, threatening to raise tariffs and inviting them to retaliate with import taxes of their own that could send the economy hurtling into a trade war.

Trump has put an additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports due to that country’s role in the production of the opioid fentanyl.

Major companies have warned about uncertainty over U.S. trade policies, while the University of Michigan’s latest consumer sentiment index plunged by roughly 10% over the past month in part due to fears about tariffs and inflation worsening.

On Monday, U.S. stocks drifted lower, compounding their sharp losses from last week.

German stocks ticked higher, and the DAX advanced 0.6% after political conservatives won an election dominated by concerns about Europe’s largest economy.

The S&P 500 dipped 0.5% to 5,983.25 on Monday after flipping between small gains and losses several times through the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1% to 43,461.21, while the Nasdaq composite fell 1.2% to 19,286.92.

Berkshire Hathaway climbed 4.1% for one of the market’s bigger gains after Warren Buffett’s company reported a jumped in operating profits for the latest quarter. But even there, the good news came with a bit of caution.

An American flag is displayed on the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

The owner of Geico, BNSF railroad and other businesses said over the weekend that it’s sitting on a mountain of $334.2 billion in unused cash. Such a large amount could indicate Buffett, who’s famous for buying stocks when prices are low, may not see much worth purchasing in a market that critics say looks too expensive.

Starbucks rose 1.3% after saying it would cut 1,100 corporate jobs and leave several hundred more positions unfilled as new CEO Brian Niccol tries to make it a leaner operation.

Big U.S. companies have broadly been reporting better profits for the last three months of 2024 than analysts expected, which is one of the main reasons the S&P 500 set a record before sliding at the end of last week.

On Wednesday, Nvidia, the company that’s become one of Wall Street’s most influential stocks because of what had been nearly insatiable demand for its chips, will make its first profit report since a China's DeepSeek upended the artificial-intelligence industry by saying it developed a large language model that can compete with big U.S. rivals without having to use the most advanced and expensive chips.

That called into question all the spending Wall Street had assumed will be required for the ecosystem that’s built around the AI boom, including electricity to power large data centers.

Nvidia’s stock lost 3.1% and was the heaviest single weight on the S&P 500.

This week will also feature updates on consumer confidence and inflation, topics leading Wall Street’s agenda following last week’s slump.

In other dealings early Tuesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 20 cents to $70.90 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 41 cents to $74.46 per barrel.

The dollar fell to 149.37 Japanese yen from 149.71 yen. The euro was unchanged at $1.0468.

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