SYDNEY, Australia - Stocks in Asia extended the global downward trend on Tuesday.

All the major indices finished in the red. The extent of losses however was moderate compared to Wall Street, which reeled under increasing fears over U.S.-China trade relations, and speculation the U.S. is heading for a recession.

U.S. stocks were also impacted by the stock, currency and bond markets plunge in Argentina.

The Hong Kong Hang Seng tumbled 513.89 points or 1.99% to 25,310.83.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 surrendered 229.38 points or 1.11% to 20,455.44.

China's Shanghai Composite dropped 17.73 points or 0.63% to 2,797.26.

The Australian All Ords fell 22.00 points or 0.33% to 6,648.26.

The euro rose a touch to 1.1188, while the British pound was little changed at 1.2058.

The Japanese yen remained strong at 105.21. The Swiss franc eased a fraction to 0.9709.

The Canadian dollar edged down to 1.3259. The Australian and New Zealand dollars were unmoved at 0.6757 and 0.6443.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 391 points, or 1.49%, at 25,896.44.

The Standard and Poor's 500 shedt 35.96 points, or 1.23%, to 2,882.69.

The Nasdaq Composite declined 95.73 points, or 1.2%, to 7,863.41.

The real action on Monday though was in Buenos Aires where the MERVAL index fell a massive 16,824.29 points, or 37.93%, to close at 16,824.29.

The peso dived by 30%, but managed to trim the day's losses to 15% by the end of the day, which was marked by extreme volatility.