The stock market in Japan ended lower on Wednesday. Investors processed the announcement that the US House of Representatives has launched an official investigation into the removal of President Donald Trump. Trade fears also flared up again after statements by Trump, who again accused China of currency manipulation and stealing intellectual property.

The leading Nikkei in Tokyo closed 0.4 percent in the minus at 22,020.15 points. Computer game maker Nintendo fell 4.3 percent. According to Bloomberg news agency, the first sales of the new game console Switch Lite are disappointing. The Japanese car manufacturer Toyota, which sells many vehicles abroad, suffered from the trading troubles and fell 1.6 percent.

Technology group SoftBank lost 2.3 percent. According to a director of telecom watchdog FCC, the merger between the American telecom providers T-Mobile and Sprint must be stopped because of a major fraud investigation against Sprint. The Japanese company SoftBank owns Sprint. Investors also responded to news that CEO Adam Neumann is resigning from The We Company, the parent company of lessor of shared workspaces WeWork. SoftBank has a major interest in this.

The Chinese stock markets took a step back. The stock market gauge in Shanghai was 0.7 percent lower in the meantime and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong lost 1.2 percent. In Seoul, the Kospi lost 1.3 percent. The All Ordinaries in Sydney lost 0.5 percent. In New Zealand, the central bank kept interest rates unchanged at 1 percent.