In European Equity Markets the Shanghai composite declined 0.5 percent and the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 0.59 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.25 percent in afternoon, despite gains of more than 0.8 percent in the shares of Japanese conglomerate Softbank Group. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.3 percent. The ASX 200 in Australia slipped more than 0.5 percent, with most sectors seeing losses. The heavily weighted financial sub-index declined 1.7 percent.

In Currency Markets the yen strengthened versus its peers on Tuesday, as investors took refuge in safe-haven assets after the U.S. Justice Department charged China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd with fraud, ratcheting up U.S.-Sino trade tensions. The yen, a currency sought out during times of market uncertainty or economic stress, advanced 0.15 percent versus the greenback to 109.19. The Aussie dollar was down 0.1 percent at $0.7155, but well off its intra-day low.

In Commodities Markets oil prices crept up on Tuesday after Washington imposed sanctions on Venezuelan state-owned oil firm PDVSA in a step set to severely curb the OPEC member’s crude exports to the United States. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $52.12 per barrel, up 13 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last settlement. International Brent crude oil futures were at $60.05 per barrel, up 12 cents, or 0.2 percent.

In US Equity Markets stocks fell on Monday after warnings from Caterpillar Inc and Nvidia Corp added to concerns about a slowing Chinese economy and tariffs taking a bite out of U.S. corporate profits. The S&P 500 lost 0.78 percent to 2,643.85. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.11 percent to 7,085.69. Nvidia fell 13.82 percent after the chip-maker cut its fourth-quarter revenue estimate by half a billion dollars on weak demand for its gaming chips in China and lower-than-expected data center sales.

In Bond Markets U.S. Treasury bond prices rose on Monday, sinking yields, after $162 billion of new debt sold to strong demand. The benchmark 10-year yield was down half a basis point at 2.75 percent. Two-year bond yields fell about half a basis point, and were last at 2.59 percent. The U.S. government sold $81 billion in short-dated bills, $40 billion of two-year notes and $41 billion of five-year notes on Monday afternoon. An additional $78 billion will be sold on Tuesday.