TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks edged lower on Wednesday as concerns, ranging from worries about U.S. corporate earnings to Middle East tensions, weighed on sentiment while crude oil approached two-month lows after Saudi Arabia flagged possible supply increases.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.2 percent, extending the decline of more than 2 percent in the previous session.
Global stocks have suffered this week on worries about U.S. earnings, Italian government finances, U.S. trade tensions and mounting pressure on Saudi Arabia over the death of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic standing looked increasingly precarious as Turkey dismissed the kingdom’s efforts to blame Khashoggi’s death on rogue operatives while U.S. President Donald Trump said Riyadh staged the “worst cover-up ever.”
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.3 percent while the Shanghai Composite Index retreated 0.6 percent.
South Korea’s KOSPI slipped 0.25 percent and Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.35 percent, handing back earlier gains.
Equity losses in the region were modest, however, after a late round of buying helped Wall Street indexes pare most of their earlier panic-driven losses.
Wall Street’s three major indexes slumped early on Tuesday but ended well off the day’s lows as investors snapped up beaten-down shares late in the session.
“Broader market sentiment remains fragile, but as last night’s resilience by Wall Street shows, sentiment has not broken down completely,” said Junichi Ishikawa, senior FX strategist at IG Securities in Tokyo.
“We may see more bouts of ‘mini panic’ until the U.S. midterm elections, but the bottom line is that the U.S. economy is in good shape and that should prevent
