SYDNEY/LONDON - Asian and European shares fell on Wednesday along with US stock futures as AI darling Nvidia took a hit from US restrictions on chip sales to China amid the intensifying global trade war, while gold climbed to a record and the dollar slid.

Treasury yields dipped slightly ahead of a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell later in the day. Traders are wondering if he will echo the dovish tone set by his colleague Fed Governor Christopher Waller.

Overnight, Washington issued new export licensing requirements for Nvidia's H20 and AMD's MI308 artificial intelligence chips to China. Nvidia's shares slumped 6 percent in after-hours trading, after it said the move would cost $5.5 billion.

"This disclosure is a clear sign that Nvidia now has massive restrictions and hurdles in selling to China," said Daniel Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities.

"The Street will take this news with clear nervousness worried these are the first shots fired in the tech battle between the US and China and Beijing/Xi are not just going to take this news and walk away."

Separately, US President Donald Trump ordered a probe into potential new tariffs on all US critical minerals imports, on top of reviews into pharmaceutical and chip imports.

European stocks fell in early trading, with the STOXX 600 index down 0.9 percent. US S&P 500 futures fell 0.7 percent while Nasdaq futures dropped 1.3 percent.

The selloff in Asian stocks gathered pace in the afternoon. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1 percent, snapping a four-day winning streak.

"The broader focus still remains on tariffs," said Aneeka Gupta, economist and strategist at WisdomTree.

"In China, we've had the restrictions raise concerns that access to global tech hardware would be further choked off," Gupta said. "That's also resulting in a bit of a risk-off sentiment in the market this morning."

The White House said Trump is open to making a trade deal with China but Beijing should make the first move.

Gold shines

All of the uncertainties left gold in an unstoppable position, with the bullion hitting another record high of $3,318 per ounce, last up 2 percent.

Australian bank ANZ on Wednesday updated its forecast for gold to hit $3,600 an ounce by the year-end, arguing that safe-haven demand for the asset would pick up.

The US dollar index, which tracks the currency against six peers, slid 0.5 percent to around its lowest since April 2022 in a sign investors remained cautious about US assets.

The Japanese yen and Swiss franc, seen as safe assets during market turbulence, rallied around 0.4 percent and 0.6 percent respectively.

The yen is trading around its highest level since September while the franc is at its highest in 10 years.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda told the Sankei newspaper that the central bank may need to take policy action if US tariffs hurt the Japanese economy, signalling the potential to pause the bank's rate-hiking cycle.

Investors moved into government bonds as stocks fell, although US Treasuries rallied less than German bunds.

The benchmark 10-year yield was down 1 bp at 4.316 percent, after yields surged last week on concerns about the stability of the US economy.

Germany's 10-year bond yield was 4 bps lower at 2.501 percent, near its lowest since early March. Yields move inversely to prices.