Asian markets closed lower on Wednesday after Chinese manufacturing data came in below expectations. Markets also digested comments from the new Federal Reserve chief made overnight. Losses in Asia, which were initially slighter than declines seen stateside, steepened as the session progressed. The declined 321.62 points, or 1.44 percent, to end at 22,068.24, paring some of its recent gains. The index slipped further into negative territory as the yen firmed during the session. A miss in industrial output figures for January, which showed a steep fall of 6.6 percent on month, likely weighed on sentiment. That was below a median 4.2 percent decrease projected by Reuters. Manufacturers, technology, automakers and financials traded in negative territory. Among large caps, Honda Motor fell 2.19 percent, SoftBank Group dropped 2.39 percent and Fast Retailing lost 2.52 percent.

South Korea's Kospi fell 1.17 percent to close at 2,427.36. Tech heavyweight Samsung Electronics, which traded in positive territory earlier in the day, closed lower by 0.68 percent as other tech stocks recorded declines. Automakers and manufacturing names finished the session mostly lower. Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 finished the session 0.68 percent lower at 6,016, with just three out of its 12 sub-indexes closing in positive territory. Gold producers and telecommunications stocks were among the worst performing sectors while the heavily weighted financials sector slipped 0.55 percent. Mining majors Rio Tinto and BHP closed lower by 0.55 percent and 1.96 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, greater China markets extended losses after declining in the last session. Hong Kong's fell 423.94 points, or 1.36 percent, to close at 30,844.72. Major financial stocks closed in negative territory, with heavyweights China Construction Bank and HSBC down 2.74 percent and 0.76 percent, respectively. Tech giant Tencent, the most heavily weighted stock on the index, fell 3.09 percent by the end of the day, as other technology names similarly recorded declines. Markets in mainland China were mixed: The lost 0.99 percent, but the Shenzhen composite pared early losses to close higher by 0.16 percent. Meanwhile, the ChiNext start-up board climbed 0.44 percent by the end of the day. Of note, official manufacturing PMI in China for the month of February stood at 50.3, below the 51.2 forecast by Reuters and the 51.3 figure seen in January. China's February PMI reading may be influenced by long Lunar New Year public holidays this year, as factories shut over the festive season. Even so, the data released on Wednesday still point to a "clear slowdown" in early 2018, said Julian Evans-Pritchard, Capital Economics' senior China economist in a note. MSCI's broad index of shares in Asia Pacific excluding Japan was down 1.13 percent by 3:39 p.m. HK/SIN. Markets in Taiwan were closed for Peace Memorial Day.

US stocks fall on Powell comments