Global Markets Today: Asian Indices Rebound Sharply Nikkei Leads 6% Surge After Trump’s Tariff Turmoil

After a massive stock market crash triggered by the U.S. President Donald Trump's aggressive tariff threats against China, Asian stock markets showed strong signs of recovery this morning. Trump's warning of an additional 50% tariff on Chinese imports, unless Beijing rolls back its recent 34% retaliatory duties, had sparked panic across global markets on Monday. However, Tuesday brought some relief for investors tracking Asian indices.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index led the recovery, jumping sharply by over 6% or 1,894 points to trade around 33,030, marking one of its biggest single-day rebounds in recent months. Despite the ongoing U.S.-China trade war tensions, Chinese stock markets also bounced back. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 25.74 points, or 0.83%, to 3,122.32, while the Shenzhen Component Index gained 38.11 points, or 0.41%, to reach 9,402.61.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index (HSI) also witnessed strong buying, surging 431.01 points, or 2.17%, to trade at 20,259.31. Meanwhile, mainland China's CSI 300 Index inched up by 0.24%. While trade tensions between the U.S. and China continue to hover over global sentiment, today's Asian stock market updates bring a ray of hope for investors.

According to a report by Nuvama Institutional Equities, "Trump's tariff war is wrecking global markets à la 2008 and 2020. In a highly financialised system, ad hoc market moves could snowball into a crisis through reflexivity." The report also warned that markets might be entering a capitulation phase, with cyclical sectors like metals, industrials, and real estate being most vulnerable. It added that markets typically bottom not when central banks begin easing but only once full-scale quantitative easing (QE) is mature and valuations become cheap.

Overnight Wall Street plunged as expected. As a result, the U.S. stock market were all over the place, going up and down during the day as traders tried to make sense of the news. By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 349.26 points (0.91%), and the S&P 500 fell 11.83 points (0.23%), while the Nasdaq recovered from a sharp 5% drop earlier in the day to end 15.48 points higher (0.10%) at 15,603.26. Over the weekend, Donald Trump continued with his tough approach on global trade by starting a 10% tariff on imports, which came into effect on Saturday. Investors on Wall Street were hoping for some positive news about talks between the U.S. and other countries, but instead, more back-and-forth tariffs are expected to start from April 9.

Back home, Indian stock indices went through a bloodbath on Monday, marking the worst one-day fall in 10 months. The Sensex plunged over 2,200 points, and the Nifty fell by more than 740 points, dragged down by heavy losses in IT, metals, and banking stocks. Analysts say the market crash was driven by fears that rising global tariffs could stoke inflation while slowing growth, increasing the chances of a U.S. recession.

However, the Indian stock market started Tuesday on a strong note, continuing its recovery from the previous day's fall. The Sensex opened with a big jump of 1,189.59 points, or 1.63%, at 74,327.49, while the Nifty 50 rose 408.50 points, or 1.84%, to trade at 22,570.10 early in the session.