Asian stocks retreated Tuesday after a series of market-rattling announcements by US President Donald Trump, including the unusual firing of a central bank official and threats to impose export controls on microchips.

Traders had been riding a wave of confidence since Friday's speech by US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, which suggested coming interest rate cuts in the world's largest economy.

But the upward flurry appeared to die out Monday on Wall Street as attention turned back to this week's earnings report from AI chip giant Nvidia -- a bellwether for the industry as concerns over a tech bubble mount.

Asian markets started Tuesday broadly lower, tracking drops made the previous day in New York and Europe.

Tokyo's main index saw the largest fall, down over one percent just

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