Asian markets fall as Hong Kong tensions remain high

Asian markets fell in early trading Tuesday as tensions in Hong Kong ratcheted up following protests Monday that shut down the city’s airport.

Hong Kong’s airport struggled to reopen Tuesday, while protests continued, though at a smaller scale. While some flights resumed, many were canceled amid a backlog of flights following Monday’s closure.

After 10 weeks, the pro-democracy demonstrations show no sign of letting up, while Chinese officials have used the term “terrorism” to describe the protests. The clashes have weakened investors’ confidence, some analysts said, and there are fears that a harsh crackdown by China could trigger a global market selloff.

“Dropping the ‘T’ word is particularly disturbing as it does suggest a more aggressive mainland response, which triggered a wave of risk aversion across global markets,” Stephen Innes, managing partner at VM Markets, said in a note Monday night.

Read: How Hong Kong clashes could wallop the U.S. stock market

Meanwhile, China’s central bank set the yuan’s midpoint weaker than 7 per U.S. dollar for a fourth straight day Tuesday. The reference point of 7.0326 per dollar was weaker than the previous day, but still stronger than what analysts had expected.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index

HSI, -1.39%

fell 1.3%, while the Shanghai Composite

SHCOMP, -0.67%

slipped 0.6% and the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite

399106, -0.81%

retreated 0.7%. Japan’s Nikkei

NIK, -1.18%

dropped 1.1% following a holiday Monday, and South Korea’s Kospi

180721, -0.66%

edged down 0.6%. Benchmark indexes in Taiwan

Y9999, -0.78%