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• Global stocks and the dollar slumped on Wednesday after a strong White House advocate for free trade resigned, fanning fears that President Donald Trump will proceed with protectionist tariffs and risk a trade war.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.65 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei retreated 0.77 percent.

• Japan’s Nikkei share average dropped on Wednesday after free-trade advocate Gary Cohn resigned as U.S. President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, fanning fears Washington will proceed with tariffs, pushing the steelmaker index to an eight-month low.

Nikkei average dropped 0.8 percent to 21,252.72, not far from 4-1/2-month low of 21,042.09.

Steelmakers became the worst-performing sector again, with Topix Iron & Steel index shedding 2.1 percent to hit an eight-month low, having lost 7.8 percent since U.S. President Donald Trump announced his tariff plan, more than twice as much as fall in the broader market.

• China stocks reversed gains from earlier in the session to end lower on Wednesday, as fears of a trade war were rekindled amid the departure of Gary Cohn, a key advocate for free trade in the White House.

Economic adviser Gary Cohn, seen as a bulwark against protectionist forces within U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, said on Tuesday he would resign, a move that came after he lost a fight over Trump’s plans for hefty steel and aluminium import tariffs.

At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.5 percent at 3,271.67.