Asia markets fell Tuesday morning, as pressure from a decline in oil prices pushed US equities lower overnight.
Australia's ASX 200 was down 0.75 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 was off by 1.31 percent, while across the Korean Strait, the Kospi was lower by 0.65 percent.
In Asian hours, US crude futures were down 1.04 percent at USD 35.33 a barrel as of 8:24 a.m. HK/SIN time after dropping nearly 3 percent overnight. Global benchmark Brent slid 2.5 percent to USD 37.69 overnight as concerns remain over the worldwide supply glut.
Energy plays were mostly lower, with Santos losing 3.73 percent, Woodside Petroleum down 2.12 percent and Inpex down 4.58 percent.
Recent comments from Saudi Arabia cast doubts about the ability of world oil producers to agree to an output freeze at their meeting in Qatar later this month.
Evan Lucas, market strategist at IG, said in a morning note that "oil is clearly repricing on the idea that 'no deal' will be inked, showing that OPEC is just a cartel by name and not by action."
In the currency market, the dollar index, which measures the US dollar against a basket of currencies, remained at the 94 level, trading at 94.59 as of 8:11 a.m. HK/SIN time.
The Japanese yen maintained flirted with falling below the 111 level against the dollar, with the dollar/yen pair at 110.97 early morning local time.
Major Japanese exporters were lower, with Toyota off 1.35 percent, Nissan down 1.84 percent and Honda losing 1.31 percent. A stronger yen is a negative for exporters as it reduces their overseas profits when converted into local currency.
Kathy Lien, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management, said in a note overnight that the dollar/yen pair is nearing "intervention territory."
"With the high level of long yen short dollar positions, this is prime time for the Bank of Japan to intervene," she said. "However Japanese policymakers have not confirmed any intervention thus far even though dollar/yen experienced unusual spikes every time it dipped below 111 over the past two months."
She added that Japan's Ministry of Finance, which makes the call on intervention, could be waiting for fiscal stimulus.
The Australian dollar retreated from USD 0.76 to USD 0.7587 Tuesday morning, ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) monetary policy decision due later in the day.
While most analysts do not expect a rate cut from the RBA today, Lien added that there's uncertainty around their comfort with recent moves in the Aussie.
"In the past, the RBA has said they prefer to see Aussie/Dollar trading closer to 65 cents and has described it as overvalued near current levels, but more recently we haven't heard any specific concerns," she said.
In Australia's stock market, shares of Nine Entertainment were down 22.7 percent as of 8:28 a.m. HK/SIN time, after the company provided a fiscal third-quarter trading update indicating Television revenue was down 11 percent on-year. The company's fiscal full year results will be released on Aug. 25, 2016.
Major US indexes closed down overnight, with the Dow Jones industrial average down 0.31 percent, the S&P 500 lower by 0.32 percent and the Nasdaq composite off by 0.46 percent.
On the data front, Australia's trade data are due, while interest rate decision from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is also on tap.
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