Wall Street witnessed overnight losses on Tuesday after the sudden dismissal of United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, amid investor fears of rising U.S. protectionism.

The move comes only days after the exit of White House economic advisor Gary Cohn who was a strong proponent of free trade, reinforcing investor uncertainty about President Trump’s future policies.

The Dow finished the trading session 0.7 percent down, the S&P 500 was last down 0.6 percent and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.0 percent.

“A U.S.-China trade war is the main risk,” Sydney-based AMP Chief Economist Shane Oliver told Reuters. “A full-on global trade war is unlikely – but there may not be much peace on the trade front either.”

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan tracked the retreat in U.S shares, losing 0.7 percent on Wednesday.

In the Middle East, markets in Egypt and Qatar continued to add gains.

Egypt’s blue-chip index added 1.5 percent, with its biggest bank Commercial International Bank gaining 2.2 percent as some investors bought to catch its annual dividend; it will go ex-dividend on March 20.

Qatar’s index added a further 1.6 percent. Qatar National Bank, which had risen its 10 percent daily limit on Monday, climbed 6.9 percent. Industries Qatar gained 4.6 percent.

In Saudi Arabia, the index rose in early trade but closed 0.04 percent lower on profit-taking after several days of strong gains.

Sahara Petrochemical climbed 1.1 percent and Sipchem surged 2.6 percent after Sipchem said it planned to resume merger talks with Sahara.

Dubai's index closed 0.03 percent higher. Emirates NBD closed unchanged on Wednesday, it had soared 19 percent in the past two days after saying it planned a big capital increase, which analysts think will mean raising its 5 percent ceiling for foreign ownership. Dubai Investments added 1.9 percent.

Neighbouring Abu Dhabi’s index closed 0.1 percent higher.

Kuwait’s index edged up 0.04 percent, Bahrain’s index added 0.6 percent, while Oman’s index rose 0.5 percent.

In commodities, oil prices edged up on Wednesday, as strong Chinese data boosted prices. China’s crude oil production in January and February fell 1.9 percent from a year ago to match a record low marked last August.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $60.84 a barrel at 0225 GMT, up 13 cents, or 0.2 percent, from their previous close.

Brent crude futures were at $64.74 per barrel, up 10 cents, or 0.15 percent.

Oil prices remain relatively weak as a rise in U.S. production weighed on markets.

“The ever-expanding U.S. supply continues to pose significant downside risk to oil prices,” Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia/Pacific at futures brokerage OANDA told Reuters.

In currencies, the dollar fell amid fears of rising U.S. protectionism as President Donald Trump fired his Secretary of State.

The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies slipped to a six-day low of 89.565.

Gold prices rose on Wednesday as investors shifted to safe havens.

Spot gold rose 0.12 percent to $1,327.56 per ounce at 0402 GMT. It touched $1,329.22 an ounce during the session, its highest since March 7.

In other news, economists have raised their forecasts for Singapore’s economic growth in 2018, as they upgraded their views on private consumption as well as wholesale and retail trade, a central bank survey showed on Wednesday.

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