World stock markets tumbled on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump ratcheted up already-heightened tensions with Beijing by banning U.S. transactions with two popular Chinese apps, Tencent's WeChat and ByteDance's Tiktok.

European stocks looked set to recede as well, with Euro Stoxx 50 futures falling 0.3 percent. S&P500 futures slid 0.5 percent.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 1.0 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.8 percent. Tencent, Asia's second-biggest company by market capitalization, dropped as much as 10.1 percent.

Mainland China's CSI 300 Index fell 1.9 percent despite strong export data, while Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.6 percent.

Trump issued the executive orders after his administration said this week it was stepping up efforts to purge "untrusted" Chinese apps from U.S. digital networks and called TikTok and WeChat "significant threats."

Coming days after the United States ordered China to vacate its consulate in Houston, the move looks set to trigger retaliatory action by Beijing, stoking fears that a "silicon curtain" is emerging between the two superpowers.

"Perhaps China could block Apple or Microsoft from China. The information sector growingly looks divided into two camps. We could be seeing just the beginning of an information technology war," said Nana Otsuki, chief analyst at Monex Securities.

The announcement dampened any excitement from China's trade data, which showed exports surged 7.2 percent in July from a year earlier, way above economists' forecast of 0.2 percent fall.

It also poured cold water on what had been a mildly positive mood on hopes U.S. policymakers will finalize stimulus worth at least 1 trillion U.S. dollars to support the country's fragile economy.

On Wall Street on Thursday, the S&P 500 gained 0.64 percent and the Nasdaq Composite added 1 percent, marking the fourth straight day of record peaks.

(With input from Reuters)