Major Asian stocks declined today after US federal appeals court reinstated President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, just a day after a trade court ordered an immediate halt on them. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington said that it is pausing the lower court’s ruling to consider the government’s appeal, and ordered the plaintiffs to respond by June 5 and the administration by June 9. Japan’s Nikkei dropped over 1.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slid 1.2 per cent, South Korea’s Kospi index closed over 0.8 per cent down, Singapore’s Strait Times index lost over 0.5 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite index slipped over 0.4 per cent.
Meanwhile, major European indices were trading in positive territory during intra-day trade. Germany’s DAX rose almost one per cent, London’s FTSE 100 was trading 0.7 percent up, and France’s CAC 40 increased 0.3 per cent, when reports last came in.