Most key Asian markets ended lower on Wednesday. So Japan's Nikkei-225 index slumped 1.3 percent on spike of Covid cases in the country amid a scarcity of medical workers and hospital beds in Tokyo. China's Shanghai Composite index lost 0.5 percent due to decline in energy stocks and banks, while digital currency-related stocks also fell after Beijing banned financial and payment companies from the cryptocurrency business and Singapore's Straits Times index lost 1.2 percent. But, South Korea's Kospi index rose 1.2 percent. Hong Kong markets were closed for a holiday.
 
In Europe, tracking weakness on Wall Street, markets were trading lower as investors grew wary of rising inflationary pressures increasing the odds of an early tightening of monetary policy. London's FTSE-100 had lost 1.1 percent; France's CAC-40 had declined nearly 1 percent and Germany's DAX was down 1.3 percent, in intra-day trade.