Asian markets settled mostly lower on Wednesday tracking Wall Street's fall overnight and on fears of escalating US-China trade tensions. In response to an inquiry about the White House's statement claiming China now faces up to a 245 percent tariff on imports to the US as a result of its retaliatory actions, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian responded that they should ask the US side for the specific tax rate figures. Market sentiments fell further even as China's first-quarter GDP growth surpassed expectations at 5.4%. Hong Kong Post suspended goods mail services by sea to the United States and will suspend its air mail postal service for items containing goods from April 27 due to bullying US tariffs. Japanese shares fell sharply, with technology shares coming under pressure after chipmaker Nvidia said the US put new restrictions on some chip exports to China. Moreover, Seoul shares declined following US's decision to restrict Nvidia's artificial intelligence chip exports to China.
| Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,276.00 | 8.34 | 0.25 |
| Hang Seng | 21,056.98 | -409.29 | -1.94 |
| Jakarta Composite | 6,400.05 | -41.63 | -0.65 |
| KLSE Composite | 1,476.92 | -9.51 | -0.64 |
| Nikkei 225 | 33,920.40 | -347.14 | -1.02 |
| Straits Times | 3,662.45 | 37.73 | 1.03 |
| KOSPI Composite | 2,447.43 | -29.98 | -1.22 |
| Taiwan Weighted | 19,468.00 | -389.67 | -2.00 |
