Chinese stock markets fell in early trading Monday amid increasing trade tensions with the U.S., while markets in most of the rest of Asia gained.
On Friday, China’s Commerce Ministry called the Trump administration’s latest tariffs hikes “bullying behavior,” and Chinese state media suggested the government was in no hurry to resume trade talks with the U.S.
On Sunday, Alphabet Inc.’s
Google reportedly revoked Huawei Technologies’ Android license, effectively blocking the Chinese tech giant’s smartphones from receiving Android updates and barring its next versions of smartphones outside of China from using the popular YouTube and Gmail apps, and as well as cutting off access to the Google Play store.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index
fell 0.6%, and the Shanghai Composite
slid 1%, while the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite
tumbled 1.5%. Japan’s Nikkei
rose 0.2% after economists were surprised by stronger-than-expected first-quarter economic growth, and South Korea’s Kospi
gained 0.7%. Benchmark indexes rose in Taiwan
but fell in Indonesia
. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200
advanced 1.4%.
Among individual stocks, Nintendo
rose while Sony
fell in Tokyo trading. CNOOC
was among the gainers in Hong Kong, while Sunny Optical
and Tencent
dropped. Samsung
and Hyundai Motor
advanced in South Korea, while Westpac Banking
surged in Australia.
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