Asia-Pacific markets trade mixed after positive start to the week

Key Points

• Shares in the Asia-Pacific were mixed Tuesday after a positive start to the week, and as investors looked ahead to Australia’s central bank’s meeting minutes.
• Major U.S. stock indexes pulled back and closed lower after rallying earlier in the session.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 215.65 points or 0.69% to 31,072.61. The S&P 500 shed 0.84% to 3,830.85. The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.81% to 11,360.05.

SINGAPORE — Shares in the Asia-Pacific were mixed Tuesday after a positive start to the week as investors looked ahead to Australia’s central bank’s meeting minutes.

Japanese markets returned to trade Tuesday after a holiday on Monday, and the Nikkei 225 rose 0.6% while the Topix index climbed 0.5%.

The Kospi in South Korea shed 0.49% and the Kosdaq lost 0.38%.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was slightly below the flat line.

The Reserve Bank of Australia is set to release its meeting minutes Tuesday.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan declined 0.19%.

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In company news, the Financial Times reported that SoftBank has paused plans to list chip designer Arm in London because of political uncertainty in the U.K. SoftBank Group’s shares rose 0.43% in early trade.

Meanwhile, Swire Pacific, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate, said it acquired Coca-Cola subsidiaries with bottling businesses in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Major U.S. stock indexes pulled back and closed lower after rallying earlier in the session.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 215.65 points or 0.69% to 31,072.61. The S&P 500 shed 0.84% to 3,830.85. The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.81% to 11,360.05.

TICKER	COMPANY	NAME	PRICE	CHANGE	%CHANGE
.N225	Nikkei 225 Index	*NIKKEI	26801.72	13.25	0.05
.HSI	Hang Seng Index	*HSI	20846.18	0	0
.AXJO	S&P/ASX 200	*ASX 200	6666.7	-20.4	-0.31
.SSEC	Shanghai	*SHANGHAI	3278.1	0	0
.KS11	KOSPI Index	*KOSPI	2361.92	-13.33	-0.56
.FTFCNBCA	CNBC 100 ASIA IDX	*CNBC 100	7982.62	-19.07	-0.24

Currencies and oil

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was last at 107.450 pulling back from last week’s levels.

“In our view, the path of least resistance for the USD is to continue trending higher because of the poor global growth outlook,” Carol Kong, a senior associate, international economics and currency strategy at Commonwealth Bank, wrote in a Tuesday note.

The Japanese yen traded at 138.35 per dollar, still stronger than levels seen last week. The Australian dollar was at $0.6804.

Oil futures fell in Asia trade after jumping around 5% on Monday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures lost 0.79% to $101.79 per barrel while international benchmark Brent crude shed 0.72% to $105.50 per barrel.

Source : CNBC