Asian stock markets have tumbled driven by fear over a looming trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. 

Benchmark indices in Shanghai and Tokyo plunged by more than four percent on Friday after China threatened retaliatory tariffs on American products over U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to impose tariffs on as much as 60 billion dollars worth of Chinese imports. 

Japan’s Nikkei 225, which began the day one-point-87 percent lower than Thursday’s close, ended Friday at 20-thousand-617-point-86 points, down by four-point-51 percent from a day earlier. The broader Japanese index Topix also slid by three-point-62 percent. 

The South Korean benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index(KOSPI) retreated three-point-18 percent while the secondary KOSDAQ fell four-point-81 percent. 

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell nearly two percent. 

The Shanghai Composite Index in mainland China plunged by three-point-39 percent, the SZSE Component Index at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange by four-point-49 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index by three-point-one percent. 

The major U.S. indices also saw a marked drop overnight, with the U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Average declining by two-point-93 percent, Standard and Poor’s 500 by two-point-52 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite by two-point-43 percent.