Asian stocks in retreat once again, Nikkei dropping below ¥21,500

Pacific-Asia equities are red across the board for Thursday as investor sentiment continues to sour further, and traders are punishing the major indices in the Asian market window, pummeling Japanese and Chinese bourses, while Australia remains surprisingly upright despite a big miss for the Aussie Trade Balance. Canada's arrest of Huawei's global CFO is also expected to see a rise in trade tensions between the US and China, and the move is poorly timed as the two nations were supposed to begin sitting down to a three-month period of trade negotiations.

Japan is steeping in the red for Thursday, with the Nikkei 225 down over -2.5% into 21,360 while Tokyo's Topix index sees declines of -2.25%. China is similarly in retreat, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index declining -2.60% while Shanghai's CSI 300 see declines near -1.95%.

Emerging markets are also seeing weakness with the MSCI broad Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) index in the red for -1.10%, but Australia's ASX 200 is down a scant -2.0%, a surprising turnout given the Aussie's $600 million miss on Trade Balance figures early in the day.

Trade war fears and increasing signs of a global economic slowdown have left Pacific-Asia investors risk-averse, and the souring mood surrounding the Trump-Xi tariff truce is doing little to help as traders brace for reheating trade tensions in the near future.

Nikkei 225 Technical Levels