Asian shares were mostly lower in early trading on Wednesday after a lackluster session on Wall Street, where the Dow industrial average ended almost flat.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index lost 0.4 per cent to 23,851.20 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.2 per cent to 31,853.70. The Kospi in South Korea shed 0.3 per cent to 2,513.40.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.4 per cent to 6,022.30. The Shanghai Composite index added 0.4 per cent to 3,451.61 and shares in Southeast Asia were mostly lower.
The S&P 500 index fell 0.4 per cent to 2,776.42. The Dow lost 0.04 per cent to 25,792.86 and the Nasdaq shed 0.5 per cent to 7,223.69, according to AP.
The price of bitcoin extended its slump. The price of one bitcoin was down 1.6 per cent at $11,156.53 as of 0240 GMT Wednesday according to the tracking site CoinDesk.
Benchmark US crude picked up 15 cents to $63.88 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell 57 cents to $63.73 per barrel on Tuesday.
Brent crude, used to price international oils, climbed 10 cents to $69.25.
The dollar rose to 110.64 yen from 110.49 yen on Tuesday. The euro strengthened to $1.2281 from $1.2258.
