Hong Kong stocks fell for the first time in four days on Thursday, as sentiment deteriorated after the US Treasury Secretary said that the White House had not offered to cut tariffs unilaterally.

The Hang Seng Index dropped 0.7%, while the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 1.5%.

In terms of star stocks, JD.com fell 6%; Meituan fell 5%; Li Auto and Alibaba fell 2%; SMIC fell 1%; Tencent fell 0.7%; while XIaomi rose 2%; NIO rose 4%.

Global equities and long-dated Treasuries rose on Wednesday on signs US President Donald Trump is rethinking the most-aggressive elements of his stances on trade and the Federal Reserve. The brief rally after wild gyrations underscores the new reality for investors that US policies on trade tend to shift without forewarning, making it harder to come up with even short term forecasts on where the markets are headed.

Trump signaled that the US is going to have a fair deal with China, adding late Wednesday that the country may receive a new tariff rate in the next two to three weeks. The administration is also considering whether to reduce certain tariffs targeting the auto industry that carmaker executives have warned would deal a severe blow to profits and jobs.

Bessent said that Trump hasn’t offered to take down US tariffs on China on a unilateral basis. Asked if there was no unilateral offer from the president to de-escalate, he said “not at all.”

The Treasury secretary said that the administration is looking at multiple factors with regard to China beyond just tariffs — including non-tariff barriers and government subsidies. He also said that the strongest relationship between Washington and Beijing is at the top, and that there was no timeframe for engagement. A full re-balancing of trade might take two to three years, he said.