Asian stocks open lower amid global trade tensions

Asian stocks opened lower today, following Wall Street's lead after yesterday the World Trade Organization has granted the US permission to impose tariffs on on $7.5 billion worth of imports from the EU, due to illegal support for Airbus over Boeing, amid mounting concerns about the US economy slowdown.

For its part, the US Trade Representative's office announced that the tariffs on EU imports will take effect starting from October 18, which renewed the market concerns about global trade tensions, amid anticipation for the new round of the US-China trade talks at the 10th and 11th of October in Washington.

Otherwise, the Australian economy released its reading for the trade balance which showed that the surplus contracted to 5.93 billion AUD from 7.25 billion in July, worse than forecasts of 6.00 billion, bearing in mind that the Chinese stocks and the South Korea's Kospi index are absent today in observance of public holidays.

The Japanese stocks fell today, as Topix fell by 1.98% or 31.61 points to 1,564.68 points, and Nikkei 225 fell by 2.02% or 440.67 points to 21,337.94.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell by 0.61% or 160.08 points to 25,882.6, New Zealand's NZX 50 fell by 1.13% or 123.78 points to 10,827.86, and the Australian S&P/ASX 200 fell by 2.03% or 135.04 point to 6,504.90.