The deepening worries over President Donald Trump’s trade war initially helped pull Japan’s Nikkei 225 share index down 5.6%. By mid-morning in Tokyo, it was down 4.2% at 33,148.45.

The yen surged against the US dollar, which also lost value against the euro.

One dollar bought 143.64 Japanese yen, down from about 146 yen a day earlier. The euro rose to $1.1306 from $1.1195.

South Korea's Kospi fell 1.3% to 2,413.16, while in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.2% to 7,619.70.

In China markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged down 0.4% to 20,606.04 and Shanghai's lost 0.2% to 3,218.94.

Taiwan's Taiex gained 1.5% as investors expect more orders would transfer to Taiwan under the worsening China-US trade war.

More tit-for-tat tariffs

China announced more countermeasures against the United States and losses for US stocks accelerated after the White House clarified that the United States will tax Chinese imports at 145%, not the 125% rate that Trump had written about in his posting on Truth Social Wednesday, once other previously announced tariffs were included. The drop for the S&P 500 exceeded 6% at one point.

China, meanwhile, has been seeking to join forces with other countries in apparent hopes of forming a united front against Trump. The world’s second-largest economy is also ramping up its own countermeasures to Trump’s tariffs.

Investors are viewing Trump's decision to delay higher tariffs for most countries for 90 days as a ploy, not a pivot, Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

“That’s the market hitting the brakes, hard. The sugar high from Trump’s tariff pause is fading fast, and Asia’s about to feel the comedown. The champagne’s flat, the party’s over and the tape is twitching,” he wrote.

US stocks give up gains

On Thursday, the S&P 500 tumbled 3.5% to 5,268.05, slicing into Wednesday’s surge of 9.5% following Trump’s decision to pause many of his tariffs worldwide. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2.5% to 39,593.66, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 4.3% to 16,387.31.

“Trump blinks,” UBS strategist Bhanu Baweja wrote in a report about the president’s decision on tariffs, “but the damage isn’t all undone.”

The stock price of Warner Bros. Discovery, the company behind “A Minecraft Movie,” dropped 12.5% for one of Wall Street’s sharpest losses after China said Thursday it will “appropriately reduce the number of imported US films.” The Walt Disney Co.’s stock sank 6.8%

A spokesperson for the China Film Administration said it is “inevitable” that Chinese audiences would find American films less palatable given the “wrong move by the US to wantonly implement tariffs on China.”