CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Asian stock markets are trading mostly lower on Tuesday, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, dragged by sharp losses in with tech-heavy Japan and South Korea amid a selloff in technology or semiconductor stocks with mounting doubts of artificial-intelligence spending. Traders also remain cautious ahead of the interest rate decision by the US Fed tomorrow, though they are pricing in a hold on interest rates. Asian markets closed mostly higher on Monday.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump told Axios that he chose to suspend strikes on Iran in order to give negotiations another chance, stressing that he could order a return to expanded military operations if diplomacy fails.
Tehran also ceased retaliatory strikes against U.S. bases in neighboring countries while Kazakhstan resumed crude oil exports through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal that had been disrupted by Ukrainian drone attacks.
The Australian stock market is modestly lower on Tuesday, reversing some of the sharp gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is falling well below the 8,900 level, with weakness in mining and energy stocks partially offset by gains in technology and financial stocks.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 27.00 points or 0.30 percent to 8,867.00, after hitting a low of 8,856.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 30.20 points or 0.33 percent to 9,033.60. Australian stocks closed sharply higher on Monday.
Among the major miners, Rio Tinto is declining more than 2 percent and Mineral Resources slipping more than 3 percent, while Fortescue and BHP Group are losing more than 1 percent each.
Oil stocks are mostly lower. Beach energy and Woodside Energy are edging down 0.2 to 0.3 percent each, while Origin Energy is down more than 1 percent and Santos is losing almost 1 percent.
Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is gaining more than 3 percent, WiseTech Global is advancing almost 4 percent and Zip is adding almost 1 percent, while Xero and Appen are up more than 1 percent each.
Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining is losing more than 2 percent, Newmont is slipping almost 3 percent and Resolute Mining is edging down 0.5 percent, while Northern Star Resources Genesis Minerals are declining almost 2 percent each.
Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking are edging up 0.1 to 0.2 percent each. Westpac is flat.
In other news, shares in Web Travel Group are surging more than 12 percent after the company announced strong revenue guidance for the first half of FY27 and a $90 million share buyback.
In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.699 on Tuesday.
The Japanese stock market is trading sharply lower on Tuesday, reversing the gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Nikkei 225 plunging 4.4 percent to well below the 62,050 level, with weakness across all sectors led by financial and technology stocks.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 62,046.46, down 2,884.73 points or 4.44 percent, after hitting a low of 61,927.02 earlier. Japanese shares ended notably higher on Monday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is tumbling more than 6 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 1 percent, while Toyota is edging down 0.4 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is tumbling more than 9 percent, Screen Holdings is plunging more than 10 percent and Tokyo Electron is slipping almost 10 percent.
In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are slipping almost 4 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is tumbling almost 5 percent.
The major exporters are mixed. Mitsubishi Electric and Panasonic are tumbling almost 6 percent each, while Sony is losing almost 1 percent and Canon is slipping almost 5 percent.
Among the other major losers, Kioxia Holdings is plummeting almost 17 percent, while Lasertec, Sumco and Disco are plunging almost 11 percent each. Ibiden is tumbling almost 10 percent, while Murata Manufacturing, Renesas Electronics, Resonac Holdings and Nikon are tumbling almost 9 percent each. Socionext, Ebara and Furukawa Electric are slipping more than 8 percent each.
Conversely, Nichirei and Fujitsu are gaining almost 3 percent each.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 163 yen-range on Tuesday.
Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea and Taiwan are tumbling 8.8 and 4.4 percent, respectively. New Zealand, China, Singapore Malaysia and Indonesia are lower by between 0.1 and 1.1 percent each. Hong Kong is bucking the trend and is up 0.2 percent.
On Wall Street, stocks gave back ground in early trading on Monday and fluctuated over the remainder of the session after failing to sustain an initial move to the upside. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing narrowly mixed.
While the tech-heavy Nasdaq dipped 43.74 points or 0.2 percent to a nearly three-month closing low of 24,932.08, the S&P 500 inched up 1.20 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 7,413.18 and the narrower Dow climbed 262.83 points or 0.5 percent to 52,210.08.
Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index jumped by 1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both rose by 0.4 percent.
Crude oil prices plummeted on Monday after the U.S. halted nearly two weeks of military attacks against Iran. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $7.09 or 7.94 percent at $82.22 per barrel.
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