Asian stocks fall on trade concerns, lack of stimulus from China

U.S. stocks fell on Thursday, with declines wider after a tech-driven selloff in the previous session.

Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index fell 0.8%. About three-quarters of the stocks in the index declined, with all sectors except energy in the red. Small-cap stocks, which had surged on encouraging inflation data last week, also fell, with the Russell 2000 index down 1.9%.

The tech-dominated Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.7%, with mixed performances among its biggest names. The Nasdaq and Meta recovered some ground after sharp declines on Wednesday, but Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet all declined.

The Nasdaq suffered its worst day since 2022 on Wednesday as investors were spooked by geopolitical tensions between the United States and China.