Asian markets were mixed Wednesday as traders tried to gauge the economic outlook after Donald Trump picked a tough-negotiating hawk as his trade envoy the day after saying he would hit China, Canada and Mexico with hefty tariffs.The stuttering performance followed a broadly negative day on Tuesday and came despite another record-breaking lead from Wall Street.While he still has just under two months to go before taking office, Trump signalled Monday that he was ready to reopen his hardball playbook with America’s key trading partners if they do not stop illegal immigration and drug smuggling.The threat to impose the levies on his first day reignited trade war fears at a time when central bankers are fighting to bring inflation under control, with several observers warning prices could begin to spike again.Investors were also trying to ascertain the ramifications of the decision to name as trade envoy Jamieson Greer, who served as chief of staff to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer during the first Trump administration.”Jamieson played a key role during my First Term in imposing Tariffs on China and others to combat unfair Trade practices,” the president-elect said, noting Greer’s experience pushing through a trade deal with Mexico and Canada.National Australia Bank’s Rodrigo Catril said: “President Trump is serious about using tariffs as a form of leverage.”Monday’s announcements “were linked to drugs and illegal immigration, but we must assume there is another layer of tariffs that should be coming on countries running trade surpluses with the US”, he said. He added that Trump was aiming for a “trade decoupling” and that “the question is whether he wants a mild decoupling or a severe one. Another observation is that we should expect retaliation, implying a negative impact on global trade”.All three main indexes on Wall Street ended on a positive note, with the S&P 500 and Dow hitting record highs.In Asia, Tokyo fell with Hello Kitty owner Sanrio tumbling more than 14 percent after major shareholders said they would reduce their stake in the firm. It had shed around 17 percent at one point.There were also losses in Singapore, Seoul, Taipei, Manila and Bangkok, but Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney and Wellington rose.Mumbai was also up, with Adani Enterprises soaring more than 10 percent after it said in statement Wednesday that tycoon founder Gautam Adani and other top officials are “only charged” with securities fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and securities fraud. It denies all the charges.It said it was “incorrect” to say that either Gautam or his nephew Sagar Adani had been charged with bribery or corruption.Its subsidiaries including Adani Green and Adani Power also rocketed.The gains came after the company said earlier in the day that it had lost almost $55 billion in a market rout since the accusations.London was flat at the open, while Paris and Frankfurt fell. Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s November policy meeting, where it cut interest rates, showed officials would take a gradual approach when considering future reductions as the job market remained solid.If data comes in about as expected, “it would likely be appropriate to move gradually toward a more neutral stance of policy over time”, the minutes said.While economists had been expecting another cut in December, bets on that have been scaled back in light of Trump’s election amid worries his pledges to cut tax and impose tariffs would lead to another spike in prices.Traders are keenly awaiting the release later Wednesday of the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation as well as figures on jobless claims and economic growth.That comes as US markets wind down for Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday.Oil prices edged up slightly. The commodity had fallen around three percent on news that Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon were close to a ceasefire, cooling geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The agreement went into effect Wednesday.Crude was getting support from the prospect of key OPEC+ nations delaying a pick-up in production that was due to begin in January.Bitcoin was sitting around $93,500, having hit a record Friday and come within a whisker of the $100,000 mark on hopes that Trump will move to ease restrictions on the crypto market.- Key figures around 0810 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.8 percent at 38,134.97 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 2.3 percent at 19,603.13 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 1.5 percent at 3,309.78 (close)London – FTSE 100: FLAT at 8,261.87Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0500 from $1.0482 on TuesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.2593 from $1.2567Dollar/yen: DOWN at 152.00 yen from 153.06 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 83.38 pence from 83.41 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.4 percent at $69.06 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.4 percent at $73.12 per barrelNew York – Dow: UP 0.3 percent at 44,860.31 (close)

India’s Adani Group conglomerate said Wednesday it had lost almost $55 billion in a stock market rout since US prosecutors last week accused its founder and other officials of fraud.The November 20 bombshell indictment in New York accused billionaire industrialist founder Gautam Adani and multiple subordinates of deliberately misleading international investors as part of a bribery scheme.It said they had “devised a scheme to offer, authorise, make and promise to make bribes payments to Indian government officials”.The firm, which denies the charges, said in a statement on Wednesday: “Since the intimation of the US DoJ (Department of Justice) indictment, the group has suffered a loss of near $55 billion in its market capitalisation across its 11 listed companies.”Gautam Adani, 62, is suspected of having participated in the $250 million scheme in bribes to secure lucrative government contracts.Adani Group issued a stiff denial, describing the charges as “baseless”, but it triggered a heavy sell-off of Adani stocks in Mumbai last week, with multiple trading halts.A statement on Wednesday said Adani officials are “only charged” with securities fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and securities fraud. It denies all the charges.It said it was “incorrect” to say that either Gautam Adani or his nephew Sagar Adani had been charged with bribery or corruption.Stocks in Adani Enterprises surged after the statement, piling on more than 10 percent in Mumbai, as did Adani Green, its renewable energy arm.Adani is a close ally of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was at one point the world’s second-richest man, and critics have long accused him of improperly benefitting from their relationship.- ‘Significant repercussions’ -The group said the action had led to “significant repercussions”, including “international project cancellations, financial market impact and sudden examination from strategic partners, investors and the public”.That included in Kenya, where President William Ruto said the Adani Group would no longer be involved in plans to expand the East African country’s electricity network and its main airport. The Adani Group was to invest $1.85 billion in Jomo Kenyatta airport and $736 million in state-owned utility KETRACO.Sri Lanka has opened an investigation into the local investments of the group, including a $442 million wind power deal and an Adani-led deep-sea port terminal in Colombo, which is estimated to cost more than $700 million.With a business empire spanning coal, airports, cement and media, Adani Group has weathered previous corporate fraud allegations and suffered a similar stock rout last year.The conglomerate saw $150 billion wiped from its market value in 2023 after a report by short-seller Hindenburg Research accused it of “brazen” corporate fraud.Adani denied Hindenburg’s allegations and called its report a “deliberate attempt” to damage its image for the benefit of short-sellers.Adani Group’s rapid expansion into capital-intensive businesses has raised alarms in the past, with Fitch subsidiary and market researcher CreditSights in 2022 warning it was “deeply over-leveraged”.Adani, who was born to a middle-class family in Ahmedabad, Gujarat state, dropped out of school at 16 and moved to Mumbai to find work in the financial capital’s lucrative gem trade.After a short stint in his brother’s plastics business, he launched the flagship family conglomerate that bears his name in 1988 by branching out into the export trade.