Asian Stocks Mostly Lower as Investors Grew Cautious

SYDNEY, Australia – Asian shares were mostly down for Tuesday as market players are growing more cautious with the lingering uncertainty over the trade agreement between the US and China ahead of the new tariff hike on $160 billion worth of Chinese imports scheduled for December 15.

Trading in the Asian stock markets was also mostly subdued ahead of the scheduled monetary policy announcement of the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday.

In choppy trading on Tuesday, the Australian stock market was mostly lower, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index dropped around 0.14%, going down by 9.30 points towards 6,720.70 from its previous 6,734.30 high. The broader All Ordinaries index also tracked a decline of 0.15%, dropping 10.10 points to 6,826.30.

Meanwhile, the four major banks were mostly flat on Tuesday. The National Australia Banks traded around 1% lower, while the ANZ Banking dipped by 0.1%. On the other hand, both the Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank edged by 0.1% each.

On Tuesday, the Australian dollar was also trading marginally lower against the US dollar, going down towards $0.6823 from its Monday close at $0.6832.

The Japanese stock market also traded lower, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 index dipping by 0.16%, going down around 38.57 points towards 23,392.13, following a 23,336.93 low earlier in the session.

Elsewhere in Asia, stock markets were also marginally lower, with Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Shanghai all recorded modest decline for the day. Indonesia and Singapore traded flat, while South Korea and New Zealand tracked modest gains.

On Wall Street, shares tracked lower during the end of Monday’s session as market players shifted to focus on the recent strength in the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped by 0.4%, going down by 105.46 points to 27,909.60. The Nasdaq also dipped by 0.4%, dropping 34.70 points to 8,621.83, while the S&P 500 recorded a 0.3% decline or 9.95 points going down to 3,135.96.

In the oil sector, stocks were weak following the modestly lower closing on crude oil prices on Monday. Santos declined by 0.5%, while Oil Search recorded a 0.4% drop and a 0.2% dip for the Woodside Petroleum.

Following the gold prices trading flat at the end of Monday’s session, gold miners were also mostly down for the day. Evolution mining recorded nearly 2% of declines on Tuesday, while Newcrest Mining inched lower by 0.3%.

The oil sector in Japan also tracked declines for the day with the Japan Petroleum dipping by around 0.7%, while the Inpex lost 0.5% on shares.