New Zealand shares declined along with global equities as fears of a recession heightened amid the ongoing trade war.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index shed 0.8%, or 105 points, to close at 12,410.97.

Miscellaneous, health services, and consumer durables led the decline.

Asian equities also fell, with Japan's Nikkei 225 down 1.4%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng losing 0.9%, and the Shanghai SSE dropping 0.5%.

Investors followed a massive sell-off on Wall Street overnight, with the Nasdaq Composite tumbling 4%, the S&P 500 plunging 2.7%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 2.1%.

Fears of a recession spooked global markets after US President Donald Trump refused to rule out that scenario amid the US' tariff war against its major trade partners.

"Concerns about the impact of 'trade war' dynamics on global activity are clouding the cycle amid signs of slowing US growth...," wrote Konstantinos Venetis, director, global macro, at TS Lombard, in a March 10 note.

"Elevated uncertainty around the specifics/implementation of US tariffs is injecting volatility in financial markets, begging the question of whether the rotation away from US equities - which has gone hand in hand with a weaker dollar - is about to give way to a broader wave of risk-off price action," Venetis added.

In domestic news, the number of seasonally adjusted filled jobs in New Zealand fell 0.3% to nearly 2.3 million in the December 2024 quarter, following a 0.8% decline in the prior three-month period, Stats NZ data showed Tuesday.

New Zealand industries' sales rose 0.1% year on year to NZ$200 billion in the December 2024 quarter.

In company news, Vista Group International (NZE:VGL, ASX:VGL) finished over 5% higher after it signed a five-year agreement with an existing client, Odeon Cinemas Group, to transition their UK and European circuits to the full Vista Cloud offering.

Elsewhere, Air New Zealand (NZE:AIR, ASX:AIZ) bought back 693,181 ordinary shares as part of its buyback program announced on Feb. 20.