Asian markets dip as worries weigh in investors

Asian markets retreated in early trading Thursday, as geopolitical tensions and the inverted U.S. Treasury yield curve weighed on investors concerned about a global economic slowdown.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin that he expects Chinese officials to travel to Washington for renewed trade negotiations, but did not give a timeline, Bloomberg News reported. He did not say if a previously scheduled September meeting would take place. Mnuchin also told Bloomberg that the U.S. does not plan in intervening in the U.S. dollar market for the time being, though “situations could change in the future.”

Japan’s Nikkei

NIK, -0.04%

fell 0.5% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index

HSI, +0.04%

slid 0.6%. The Shanghai Composite

SHCOMP, +0.03%

retreated 0.2% while the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite

399106, +0.16%

inched down 0.1%. South Korea’s Kospi

180721, -0.18%

declined 0.2%, while benchmark indexes in Taiwan

Y9999, +0.31%