"This is all a game of high stakes poker for the Trump campaign," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said of recent comments about Taiwan.

Asian shares are set to end the week on a sour note, as uncertainty across the geopolitical landscape and in major economies added to headwinds for investors even as the global rate easing cycle gets under way.

Asian shares were mostly lower Thursday, with Tokyo’s benchmark dipping more than 2%, after Wall Street’s record-breaking rally slammed into a wall of worries over potentially worsening trade tensions with China.

US indexes declined sharply for a second session this week, as the plunge in leading tech stocks broadened out to the rest of the market. Artificial intelligence names in mega-cap tech such as Google and Amazon dropped over 1% through Thursday,

Much of the prior day’s pain centered on stocks of chip companies, hurt by possible trade tensions with China and other worries. But they stabilized as industry giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.