SINGAPORE – Asia Pacific stocks fell Wednesday morning, with some markets in the region closed for public holidays.
The Australian S & P / ASX 200 took losses in key markets in the region as it fell 1.64%.
Mainland China stocks were also lower, with the Shanghai compound falling 0.49% while the Shenzhen component falling 0.387%.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 0.97% while the Topix index fell 0.49%.
MSCI’s broadest index for stocks in the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan was down 0.38%.
In terms of corporate performance, Singapore Airlines shares fell about 2% on Wednesday morning. The company will announce its full year results later in the day.
The markets in Hong Kong and South Korea are closed on Wednesday for public holidays.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 267.13 points to 34,060.66 while the S&P 500 was down 0.85% to close at 4,127.83. The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.56% to 13,303.64.
Oil prices drop 1%
Oil prices eased on the morning of Asian trading hours and the international reference Brent crude oil futures fell 1.03% to $ 68 a barrel. US crude oil futures were down 1.07% to $ 64.79 a barrel.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of its peers, hit 89.827 after falling over 90 recently.
The Japanese yen was trading at 109.01 per dollar after rising above 109 against the greenback yesterday. The Australian dollar was trading at $ 0.7788, up from $ 0.774 earlier this week.
