Asia markets slide amid US-China trade jitters

The Nikkei 225 in Japan slipped 0.54% in early trade. Shares of index heavyweight and conglomerate Softbank Group plunged more than 3.5% after sources told Reuters that U.S. Justice Department staff have recommended blocking a deal between T-Mobile and rival Sprint.

In South Korea, the Kospi slipped 0.31%, while Australia’s ASX 200 declined 0.19%.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 100.72 points to 25,776.61 and the S&P 500 declined 0.3% to 2,856.27. The Nasdaq Composite also fell 0.5% to close at 7,750.84.

The stateside moves followed as investors kept an eye on developments between Beijing and Washington amid a recent escalation in trade tensions.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC’s Ylan Mui on Wednesday that a trip to Beijing to resume trade negotiations has not been scheduled yet, reducing hopes of a speedy resolution to the trade war.

Meanwhile, restrictions on Chinese telecom giant Huawei have led China to rethink its entire economic relationship with the U.S., according to a report from The South China Morning Post. The report said China is considering dropping purchases of natural gas from the U.S. In 2017, China bought $6.3 billion worth of U.S. crude and liquefied natural gas.

The U.S. recently added Chinese telecoms giant Huawei to a trade blacklist, which puts curbs on its ability to do business in America. However, some of those restrictions were eased on Monday.

On the monetary policy front, minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s May meeting indicated the central bank will not make any moves regarding interest rates “for some time ” even if the economy improves.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 98.072 after dipping momentarily below 98.0 yesterday.

The Japanese yen, seen as a safe-haven currency, traded at 110.21 against the dollar after strengthening from levels beyond 110.5 in the previous session. The Australian dollar was at $0.6876 after touching lows around $0.687 yesterday.

Oil prices declined fractionally in the morning of Asian trading hours, with the Brent crude futures contract at $70.93 per barrel and U.S. crude futures at $61.39 per barrel.

— CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this report.