Investing.com – Asian stocks extended their losses in afternoon trade on Wednesday, as global trade-war concerns intensified with the resignation of U.S. economic adviser Gary Cohn after disputes over tariffs plans.
White House chief economic adviser Gary Cohn announced his resignation on Tuesday. While Cohn did not mention the disputes in his statement, he reportedly quit just hours after a confrontation with U.S. president Trump over his tariffs plan. Following Cohn’s announcement, the White House said it was considering to impose wider curbs on China and clamp down on Chinese investment in the U.S.
Overnight, the Dow gained 0.04%, the S&P 500 added 0.26%, and the Nasdaq was up 0.5%.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.7% lower at the close, as yen strengthened after the U.S. showed mixed signals about whether Trump would follow through with his tariff proposals. Bank of Japan’s monetary policy decision and briefing are due this Friday.
China’s National People’s Congress continued to remain in focus, as the country’s finance minister Xiao Jie said on the third day of the event that the country would continue to cut tax and pledge tax cut of $126 billion, on top of extending tax breaks to small and medium sized enterprises. Xiao also noted that China would strictly punish debt issuance chaos to ensure there are no systematic debt risks in the country. The Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen Component opened higher but both fell into the red later in the day, down 0.3% and 0.6% respectively by 1:30am ET.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index extended its losses from the morning, reversed some of its 600 points gains yesterday and slipped 1.2%. Hong Kong-listed mainland lenders outperformed the region as Chinese regulators were reportedly moving to ease lenders’ provisions toward bad loans.
South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.5%, after gaining close to 1% in the morning after North Korea indicated that it would consider giving up nuclear weapons if the regime's safety is guaranteed. Trump signaled he was open to talks with North Korea following the comments.
Elsewhere, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped for the fifth time in six sessions and fell 1.01% to end the day at 5,902 after the country reported a slower-than-expected GDP growth of 0.4% in the December quarter, compared to the general consensus of an increase of 0.5%. The economic growth was reportedly undermined by weaker construction and exports.