President Joe Biden signed an executive order Wednesday to block and regulate high-tech US investments going toward China, reflecting an intensifying competition between the world’s two biggest powers.

The order covers advanced computer chips, micro electronics, quantum information technologies and artificial intelligence. 

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What happened overnight 

Asian stocks broadly fell, hovering close to a one-month low, after Joe Biden announced a US ban on investments in sensitive technologies in China.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.6pc and looked set to log a second straight week of losses with markets still reeling from the world’s second largest economy slipping into deflation.

China’s blue-chip CSI 300 Index fell 0.5pc and the Shanghai Composite Index eased 0.2pc, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index retreated nearly 1pc.

Wall Street stocks slipped on Wednesday, as traders braced for the highly anticipated report on US inflation released later today.

The S&P 500 fell 0.7pc to 4,467.71 for its sixth drop in the last seven trading sessions.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.5pc to 35,123.36, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite sank 1.2pc to 13,722.02.

In the bond market, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.00pc from 4.03pc late Tuesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which moves more on expectations for action by the Fed, rose to 4.80pc from 4.76pc.