Global FX DATA:

• • • ASIAN MARKET
      
      Global stocks and the dollar slumped on Wednesday after a key advocate for free trade in the White House announced his resignation, fanning fears President Donald Trump would go ahead with tariffs and risk a trade war.
       
    • GOLD
      
       Gold prices continued to gain momentum as U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement regarding tariffs on imported steel and aluminum sparked a sell-off in equities and the dollar.
       
  • • OIL
      
      Oil prices fell on Wednesday, pulled down by weaker sharemarkets after a key advocate for free trade in the U.S. government resigned, triggering concerns that Washington would go ahead with import tariffs and risk a trade war.
       
    • INDIA
      
      The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appointed a committee of scholars to prove that Hindus are descended from India's first inhabitants. Members of the country's Muslim minority worry the government wants to make them second-class citizens.
       
    • DOLLAR
      
      The dollar extended its latest retreat on Wednesday after a key advocate for free trade in the White House announced his resignation, fanning fears President Donald Trump would go ahead with tariffs and risk a trade war.
       
    • AUSTRALIA
      
      The head of Australia’s central bank is upbeat about domestic economic growth despite a disappointing end to last year, but fears the spectre of a trade war calling threatened U.S. tariffs “highly regrettable.”
       
    • SOUTH KOREA
      
      Two senior South Korean officials who met with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un this week will depart for Washington on Thursday to brief U.S. officials on the outcome of their meeting

    • GUINEA
      
      At least 18 people were killed by a magnitude 6.7 quake that struck Papua New Guinea’s mountainous Southern Highlands early Wednesday, adding to the death toll from a larger quake last week.

    • US
      
      Gary Cohn, the top economic adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump and a voice for Wall Street in the White House, said on Tuesday he would resign, a move that came after he lost a fight over Trump’s plans for hefty steel and aluminum import tariffs.

    • CALIFORNIA
      
      The U.S. Justice Department sued the state of California over so-called “sanctuary” policies that try to protect illegal immigrants against deportation, ramping up a confrontation over whether local police should enforce federal law.
       

    • CHINA
      
      China’s insurance regulator on Wednesday greatly expanded rules that govern shareholding in the country’s insurers in a bid to make ownership structures more transparent.