US President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs announcement has sent global financial markets into freefall and weakened the dollar.



Shares plummeted in Tokyo on Friday after Wall Street indexes suffered their biggest one-day losses since the COVID pandemic in 2020. The benchmark Nikkei 225 briefly plunged by over 1,200 points, or 3.7 percent.



After Trump's announcement, a senior administration official stressed that countries targeted should not take retaliatory measures. That prompted investors to place massive sell orders on concern a trade war will damage the global economy.



The dollar also fell sharply against the yen in the New York foreign exchange market on Thursday. It weakened to the lower 145 level for the first time in about six months.



The Japanese currency maintained that level in Tokyo trading on Friday.



Investors' fears that the tariffs could drive the US economy into recession are causing US long-term interest rates to drop, making dollar assets less attractive.