Stocks in Asia mostly declined in Wednesday afternoon trade following overnight losses on Wall Street that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average fall more than 200 points.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 lost 256.77 points, or 1.2%, to 21,003.37.
The yen last changed hands at 109.20 against the U.S. dollar after seeing levels above 109.5 in the previous session.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng slumped 155.1 points, or 0.6%, to 27,235.71, with Hong Kong-listed shares of HSBC and China Construction Bank seeing declines.
In Korea, stocks listed lower, with shares of Samsung Electronics paring some losses to fall 1.8%.
Australian markets moved lower, as almost all the sectors traded lower. Shares of Lynas in Australia — one of the few rare earth miners outside of China — surged more than 15%.
The Australian dollar hovered around $0.6917 U.S., just slightly weakened since Tuesday.
CHINA
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 index let go of 8.35 points, or 0.2%, to 3,663.91
Investors remained cautious, awaiting new developments between Beijing and Washington amid the ongoing trade tensions.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday the U.S. was “not ready” to strike a deal with China, before adding he expected one in the future. He also said tariffs on Chinese imports could go up “substantially.”
For its part, China appeared to have made a veiled threat concerning rare earth minerals, a crucial component to the U.S. technology industry.
Chinese President Xi Jinping recently visited rare earth mining and processing facilities, adding to speculation that Beijing could make the minerals more expensive or unavailable if the trade war continues to expand.
Shares of rare earth companies soared in Wednesday afternoon trade. In China, shares of JL Mag Rare-Earth skyrocketed around 10% while Innuovo Technology jumped 10%.
In currency news, the Trump administration refrained from labeling China as a currency manipulator, but kept the country on a monitoring list along with eight other countries such as Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore.
Following the announcement, many of those currencies continued weakening against the dollar throughout the afternoon. The onshore Chinese yuan last traded at 6.9143, while its offshore counterpart was at 6.9343
In other markets
In Korea, the Kospi index dropped 25.51 points, or 1.3%, to 2,023.32
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index fell 2.04 points, or 0.1%, to 3,163.28
In Taiwan, the Taiex Index retreated 10.53 points to 0.1%, to 10,301.78
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 fell 26.85 points, or 0.3%, to 10,096.47
In Australia, the ASK 200 slouched 44.81 points, or 0.7%, to 6,440.03
