BEIJING (AP) — Asian stocks slid Tuesday after tech losses dragged down Wall Street and Nissan's chairman was arrested on financial charges.
KEEPING SCORE: In early trading, Germany's DAX index lost 0.8 percent to 11,156.08 points and France's CAC 40 shed 0.7 percent to 4,951.75. London's FTSE 100 retreated 0.4 percent to 6,969.74. On Monday, the DAX dropped 0.9 percent, the CAC gave up 0.8 percent and the FTSE 100 slipped 0.2 percent. Wall Street looked set for a lower opening, with the future for the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index off 0.6 percent and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.4 percent.
ASIA'S DAY: The Shanghai Composite Index fell 2.1 percent to 2.645.88 and Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 1.1 percent to 21,583.12. Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 2 percent to 25,840.34 and Seoul's Kospi retreated 0.9 percent to 2,082.58. Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 was 0.4 percent lower at 5,671.80 and India's Sensex declined 0.6 percent to 35,559.08. Benchmarks in Taiwan, New Zealand and Southeast Asia retreated.
WALL STREET: Apple, Microsoft and Amazon sustained some of the worst losses as technology companies tumbled again, leading to broad losses. The Dow briefly fell 512 points. The S&P 500 fell 1.7 percent. The Dow closed down 1.6 percent. The Nasdaq composite skidded 3 percent. Boeing, a major exporter, gave up 4.5 percent. Apple fell 4 percent and Amazon gave back 5.1 percent.
NISSAN: Nissan said Chairman Carlos Ghosn, who engineered a turnaround at the automaker, was arrested on charges he underreported his income and misused company funds and will be fired. Nissan said Ghosn and another senior executive, Greg Kelly, were accused of offenses discovered during an investigation set off by a whistleblower. Kelly also was arrested. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance sold 10.6 million cars last year, more than any other manufacturer. U.S.-traded shares of Nissan lost 5.8 percent, while Renault shares dropped 8.4 percent in Paris.
U.S.-CHINA TRADE: Investors focused on simmering trade tension between Washington and Beijing after the two governments clashed at a weekend conference. The two countries have raised tariffs on billions of dollars of each other's goods in a fight over China's technology policy. Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are due to meet this month at a gathering of the Group of 20 major economies. At the weekend meeting in Papua New Guinea, Trump's vice president, Mike Pence, criticized Beijing for intellectual property theft, forced technology transfers and unfair trading practices.
ANALYST'S QUOTE: "The conviction for a bounce back into the year end for equity markets can be seen slowly diminishing as worries across a variety of issues entrench themselves," Jingyi Pan of IG said in a report. Pan said investors are shifting to safe havens amid uncertainty ahead of the G20 meeting.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude lost 37 cents to $56.83 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 52 cents on Monday to $57.20. Brent crude, used to price international oils, fell 54 cents to $66.25 per barrel in London. It added 3 cents the previous session to $66.79.
CURRENCY: The dollar edged down to 112.45 yen from Monday's 112.53 yen. The euro gained to $1.1470 from $1.1454.
