ECB President Lagarde said most policymakers had previously been prepared to raise rates in April.

A-shares closed sharply lower as the STAR 50 Index plunged 7.7% and the compute-hardware sector led declines. The ChiNext Index fell 5.71% after sliding as much as 6% near the close; Shanghai Composite dropped 2.03% and Shenzhen Composite fell 3.85%. Turnover on Shanghai and Shenzhen topped 3.4 trillion yuan, with nearly 3,000 stocks down. Sector action: precious metals outperformed and Hainan-related shares rose; innovative-drug names spiked midday; rare-earth permanent magnets eased in the afternoon. Compute-hardware sub-sectors, including storage chips and CPO, remained under pressure.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it continued operations in the southern Lebanon security zone.