Hong Kong stocks sank on Tuesday as a selloff on Wall Street overnight rattled investors, with sentiment hurt by heightened uncertainty over U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policy and rising geopolitical tensions.

The Hang Seng Index dropped 1.4%, while the Hang Seng Technology Index fell 2.2%.

In terms of star stocks, Laopu Gold fell 6%; Pop Mart fell 5%; Kuaishou fell 4%; Tencent, Baidu, Bilibili, CATL, and Meituan fell 3%; Knowledge Atlas, Alibaba, BYD, and SMIC fell 2%; JD.com, XPeng, Li Auto, and Xiaomi fell 1%; while MiniMax rose 2%; NIO rose 1%.

On Monday, Trump warned countries against backing away from recently negotiated trade deals with the U.S. after the Supreme Court struck down his emergency tariffs, saying that he would hit them with much higher duties under different trade laws.

The new tariffs are based on Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, causing further confusion in markets trying to come to grips with U.S. protectionist policies.

Overnight, the S&P 500 was down 1.0%, erasing the past week of gains, as fears over the displacement effects of AI on software and other industries pushed the Nasdaq Composite 1.1% lower. A bearish report from Citrini Research on the possible risks to the global economy took a further toll on jittery investor sentiment.

The CBOE Volatility Index, commonly known as the VIX, rose 1.9 percentage points to 21.01.