Asian stocks dip amid Tariffs uncertainty, investors await U.S. jobs report

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Asian stocks dipped lower on Friday due to Trump’s tariff uncertainties. Tokyo’s benchmark closed lower than 20% following a Wall Street sell-off.

Investors are holding off as they wait for the U.S. Labor Department’s jobs report. At the same time, China has reported slower trade growth between January and February. Exports rose to 2.3%, while imports shrank to 8.4%.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index has reversed its gains from earlier and ended 0.6% lower at 24,231.30. At the same time, the Shanghai Composite shed 0.3% to 3,372.55. Taiwan’s Taiex has dipped 0.6%, while South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.5% to 2,563.48. 

Hang Seng Index | Source: Google Finance

European stocks seem to have followed lower due to market uncertainty caused by trade tariffs. For instance, Germany’s dax LOST 1.3% to 23,122.3, whereas France’s CAC 40 is down 0.6% to 8149.37. 

Trump has already kicked off a trade war by introducing new tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada. According to a Reuters report, Asian countries, including Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam, are heavily exposed to U.S. tariffs. 

Trump has vowed to target the pharmaceutical, steel, aluminum, and semiconductor sectors. As a result, these tariffs could affect more than a quarter of exports from countries like the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, and South Korea.

According to Florian Lelpo from the Swiss banking group Lombard Odier, these tariffs are “creating a lot of uncertainty, and that is showing up not only in markets, which have become quite volatile but also in forward-looking leading indicators.”

Bitcoin also dipped in response to US reserve news

Bitcoin price chart | Source: Coinmarketcap

Earlier today, Trump signed an executive order stating that the US government would not use money from American taxpayers to fund its strategic reserve. 

Crypto and AI czar David Sacks mentioned in an X post that the reserve would include Bitcoin seized from previous law enforcement activities. He added that it would not “cost taxpayers a dime.” Currently, the U.S. has over $17 billion worth of Bitcoin (190,000 BTC). 

Since it appeared that the US had no plans of purchasing more Bitcoin off the market, investors initially dumped their coins in disappointment. CoinMarketCap data shows that Bitcoin dipped sharply from $90,400 to $84,979 before rebounding back to $89,000. 

However, in the long term, the news is quite positive, as it removes $17 billion in sell pressure from the market.

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