Asian Stocks Sell Off; Bitcoin Slides Below $80,000 — WSJ

By Joe WallaceA post-Nvidia hangover, plus fresh trade tensions, are weighing on global markets.Overseas stocks fell after China said it would retaliate against U.S. President Trump's tariffs, moves which threaten to pull the world's two biggest economies back into a renewed trade war. Shares in mainland China and Hong Kong sold off, while Nvidia's recent slide knocked Japanese stocks tied to the chip industry.Meantime, U.S. stock futures edged higher, while Treasury yields were a little lower. Bitcoin prices slid below $80,000, accelerating a recent losing streak.Investors are struggling to gauge if Trump will go ahead with tariffs on allies including Canada and Mexico, as well as China, given the whipsaw in U.S. trade policy in recent weeks.Beijing said Friday it would counter any additional tariffs imposed by the U.S., after Trump said he would place an extra 10% levy next month.In recent trading:S&P 500, Dow industrials and Nasdaq-100 futures rose modestly. Nvidia shares ticked higher premarket, after dropping 8.5% Thursday.The WSJ Dollar Index strengthened, as did Japan's yen.Stock indexes in Europe, an open economy exposed to world trade, slipped. One outlier was London's FTSE 100, which edged up after upbeat talks between Trump and Prime Minister Keir Starmer.Losses were more pronounced in Asia. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell more than 3%. Indexes also fell sharply in mainland China and Japan.Coming up:PCE data for January is due at 0830 ET. The personal-consumption-expenditures price index is the Federal Reserve's favored measure of inflation.This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).