Asian stocks slid on Monday after US President Donald Trump threatened to slap extra tariffs on eight European nations until the United States is allowed to buy Greenland, pushing the dollar down against the safe-haven yen and Swiss franc.

In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index was 203 points, or 0.76 percent, down at 26,641.

The China enterprises index dropped 69 points or 0.7 percent, to 9,151 while the tech index fell 45 points or 0.8 percent, to 5,777.

On the mainland, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.27 percent at 4,090 points while the Shenzhen Component Index was 0.41 percent lower at 14,221.

The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, was down 0.6 percent at 3,340.

The Star Composite Index, which reflects the performance of stocks on China's sci-tech innovation board, opened 0.24 percent lower at 1,850 while the Star 50 Index, which tracks the largest stocks listed on the board that also meet certain liquidity requirements, opened 0.03 percent lower at 1,513.

Further afield, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index fell 1.4 percent to 53,159 in early trading while the broader Topix slid one percent to 3,623.

Gold and silver both jumped to all-time highs, while oil flatlined on concerns about what an all-out trade war between the United States and Europe could mean for global growth and demand.

A holiday in US equity and bond markets made for thin trading and likely contributed to a 0.8 percent drop in S&P 500 futures and a 1.1 percent fall in Nasdaq futures.

For Europe, Eurostoxx 50 futures and DAX futures both shed 1.3 percent while FTSE futures lost 0.6 percent.

Japan's Nikkei fell 1.4 percent, and MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.3 percent.

Trump said he would impose additional 10 percent import levies from February 1 on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Britain, rising ⁠to 25 percent on June 1 if no deal is reached.

Major European Union states decried the tariff threats over Greenland as blackmail, and France proposed responding with a range of previously untested economic countermeasures.

The EU's options include a package of its own tariffs on 93 billion euros of US imports that was suspended for six months in early August and measures under an Anti-Coercion Instrument that could hit US services trade or investments.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank noted European countries owned US$8 trillion of American bonds and equities, almost twice as much as the rest of the world combined, and might consider bringing some of that money back home.

"With the US net international investment position at record negative extremes, the mutual interdependence of European-US financial markets has never been higher," said George Saravelos, Deutsche's global head of FX research.

"It is a weaponisation of capital rather than trade flows that would by far be the most disruptive to markets."

It should also make for a fraught few days at Davos as leaders from around the world gather at the World Economic Forum, including a large US group led by Trump himself. (Reuters/Xinhua)