(Changes dateline, updates to Asia open)

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Trump's tariff plans, geopolitical tensions sap sentiment

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Chinese tech stocks drop after a blistering rally

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Safe-haven yen hits over two-month high

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Gold hits all-time high

By Ankur Banerjee and Chibuike Oguh

SINGAPORE/NEW YORK, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Asian shares fell

sharply on Thursday, tracking choppy trading on Wall Street and

a dip in European stocks as U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff

plans and a cautious stance from Federal Reserve policymakers

hurt risk sentiment.

The risk-off mood lifted gold prices to a record high, while

safe-haven currencies led by the Japanese yen also firmed on

geopolitical worries.

Trump said on Tuesday that sector-wide tariffs on

pharmaceuticals and semiconductor chips would start at "25% or

higher," rising substantially over the course of a year. He

intends to impose similar tariffs on autos as soon as April 2.

That along with other threats has exacerbated fears of a

wide-ranging trade war, leaving investors jittery, although some

analysts see the moves by Trump as a negotiation tool.

"In general the bias for markets remains upwards but if you

look shorter term over the last few days, it's more mixed

because the market tends to trade around the latest indications

of the Trump administration," said Julian McManus, portfolio

manager at Janus Henderson Investors.

"That tends to be unsettling and markets tend to trade off

whenever they hear the word tariff because they think it means

either risk for a particular country or they think inflation."

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan

fell 1% in early trading. Japan's Nikkei

slid 1.4% on the strong yen.

Chinese stocks had a muted start to the session, with the

blue-chip index down 0.4%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index

slid 1.7%, having touched a four-month high earlier this

week boosted by a blistering rally in tech stocks.

On Thursday, Hang Seng's tech stocks index fell

more than 3%, on course for its worst one-day drop in three

months. Still, the index is up nearly 6% so far in February.

Wall Street's main indexes finished higher on Wednesday,

with the S&P 500 edging to a second straight closing high

after wobbling between green and red throughout the session.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index dropped 0.9%,

logging its biggest daily fall since the start of the year.

Trump's initial policy proposals raised concern at the Fed

about higher inflation, with firms telling the U.S. central bank

they generally expected to raise prices to pass along the cost

of import tariffs, according to the Fed's January meeting

minutes released on Wednesday.

"Trump's policies ... no doubt added complexity to the Fed's

balancing act between inflation and employment, forcing

policymakers to lean into a wait-and-see approach," said Yeap

Jun Rong, market strategist at IG.

"That said, with market expectations already well aligned

for a rate hold over the next two FOMC meetings, the minutes

served more as confirmation of existing sentiment."

The yen gained as market jitters escalated on

geopolitical worries after Trump denounced Ukrainian President

Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a "dictator" amid talks to end the

Ukraine war.

The yen hit an over two-month high against the

dollar and was last up nearly 0.6% at 150.57 per dollar. The yen

has risen more than 4% against the dollar this year boosted by

rising odds of the Bank of Japan hiking rates again in 2025.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback

against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro,

eased 0.1% to 107.07. The euro was steady at $1.0429.

Gold prices rose to a fresh record high of $2,946.85 an

ounce on safe-haven demand, reaching a new peak for the ninth

time this year. The yellow metal was last at $2,940.63.

Oil prices eased away from a one-week high on worries about

supply disruptions in Russia and the U.S., even as the market

awaits the outcome of talks to end the war in Ukraine.