LONDON/TOKYO - Stocks and bond yields slid on Tuesday as investors globally ducked for cover after the United States hit Canada, Mexico and China with steep tariffs, launching new trade conflicts with the top three US trading partners.

European stocks slid 1 percent, falling back from record highs, with shares of automakers, vulnerable to trade duties, losing 3 percent. Aerospace and defense stocks hit a record high, however.

Government bond yields fell. US 10-year Treasury yields dropped to their lowest since October at 4.115 percent, while yields on German 10-year bonds, a benchmark for the euro zone, also slid.

Other riskier assets lost ground too, with bitcoin slipping under $84,000, erasing a surge at the start of the week. The risk-sensitive Australian dollar fell, too.

MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, fell 0.2 percent.

Still, US futures gained almost 0.3 percent, signalling the sell-off may peter out globally. The S&P 500 is down about 5 percent from its February 19 all-time closing high as tariffs exacerbate concerns about growth.

Investors were also unnerved by US President Donald Trump pausing military aid to Ukraine following his clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week, deepening the fissure that has opened between the one-time allies.

"Everyone is caught by the onslaught. You have the news on tariffs, the news on Ukraine," said Samy Chaar, chief economist and chief investment officer for Switzerland at Lombard Odier, a private bank in Geneva.

"It means that you create uncertainty, and when you have that on markets, investors get back to base."

In Asia, equities tracked the biggest losses on Wall Street this year from overnight, where the S&P 500 slid 1.8 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 2.6 percent.

Japan's Nikkei fell 1.6 percent and Taiwan's benchmark lost 0.5 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.4 percent.

Crude oil settled at the lowest levels since early December amid reports OPEC+ will proceed with a planned oil output increase in April. Brent futures fell 1.4 percent to $70.61 a barrel.

Market players were concerned about the fallout for the US economy as well, especially given a run of soft data in recent weeks.

Those worries escalated on Monday with figures showing US factory gate prices jumped to a nearly three-year high and materials deliveries were taking longer, suggesting that tariffs on imports could soon hamper production.

The Canadian dollar and Mexican peso weakened, while the Aussie dollar sank to a one-month low.

Sterling held close to a 1 1/2-month high and the euro was also firm after a 1 percent rally on Monday as European leaders drew up a Ukraine peace plan to present to Washington.

Bitcoin fell below $84,000 as optimism about a so-called strategic US cryptocurrency reserve quickly waned, a day after Trump named five tokens, including bitcoin, to be part of the plan.