Asian stocks tumble most since 2008 on global recession worries

President Donald Trump dug in his heels after the tariffs he announced last week spurred retaliation by China

Stocks in Asia slumped, with a key benchmark sliding by the most in over 16 years, as Chinese shares led a broad and deep selloff on worry over the trade war’s impact on the global economy.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell as much as 7.9%, the most since October 2008, with TSMC, Tencent and Sony among the biggest drags. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index plunged as much as 10.7%, the worst since the global financial crisis. Every market was solidly in the red.

President Donald Trump dug in his heels after the tariffs he announced last week spurred retaliation by China. The biggest concern is that if nothing is done to de-escalate the situation, economies around the world could slide into recession.

“We are seeing selling across every sector — not just trade impacted,” said Jun Bei Liu, founder of hedge fund Ten Cap Pty Ltd. “I think the way to look at this is that we are seeing proper capitulation in the share market.”

Taiwan’s tech-heavy equity benchmark slid as much as 9.8%, the most on record and on track to enter a bear market, following holidays last Thursday and Friday. Key gauges were down more than 4% in Japan and South Korea. Markets were closed for holidays in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.