After a brief couple of days of stability, jitters have returned to the world's trading floors following a report that the US titan Apple had slashed production of its most popular handsets.

That comes just a week after a supplier suggested the firm had cut orders, fanning speculation the latest incarnation of the gadget is not selling as much as hoped.

New York stocks had tumbled Monday, with the Nasdaq crumbling on worries about flagging growth among tech giants and US-China trade tensions.

Apple collapsed four percent with Facebook, Amazon, Google parent Alphabet and Microsoft each diving three percent or more.

The losses filtered through to Asia, where Apple suppliers were also in trouble.

In addition, Japanese car giants Nissan and Mitsubishi plunged on news that chairman Carlos Ghosn had been arrested over alleged financial misconduct.

Markets also remain pressured by the uncertain US interest rate outlook and political uncertainty over both Brexit and Italy's fiscal troubles.

"A sea of red across equity markets suggest we are heading for another turbulent session as investors come to terms with another sell-off on Monday and an increasingly wobbly tech sector," said Oanda analyst Craig Erlam.

"There still appears to be a lot of underlying anxiety in the markets which may prolong the current sell-off a little longer -- with trade wars, the pace of US interest rate hikes, Brexit and the Italian budget standoff all being significant headwinds."

Markets were also well down as attention starts to turn to next week's G20 summit in Argentina, where Donald Trump is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping to talk trade.