Asian Markets Mostly Lower

(RTTNews) - Asian stock markets are trading mostly lower on Tuesday, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders remained reluctant to make significant moves ahead of a busy week for earnings and key economic data releases in the US. Asian markets closed mostly lower on Monday.

A lack of major cues kept some traders on the sidelines as they look ahead to reports on consumer confidence, new home sales, durable goods orders, first quarter GDP and personal income, all of which could impact the outlook for interest rates ahead of the US Fed meeting next week.

The Australian stock market is closed on Tuesday on account of ANZAC Day. Australian stocks closed slightly lower on Monday.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.668 on Tuesday.

The Japanese stock market is notably higher on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 moving above the 28,700 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders look ahead to the Bank of Japan's monetary policy meeting later in the week, with the BoJ expected to maintain its policy of ultra-low interest rates.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 28,706.04, up 112.52 points or 0.39 percent, after touching a high of 28,806.69 earlier. Japanese shares ended slightly higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is flat, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging down 0.2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging up 0.4 percent and Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 1 percent, while Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings are adding almost 1 percent each.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining almost 1 percent, while Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are adding more than 1 percent each.

The major exporters are higher. Canon is gaining almost 1 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is surging almost 5 percent, Panasonic is adding almost 2 percent and Sony is edging up 0.4 percent. Among the other major gainers, Nidec is gaining almost 4 percent, Daiwa House Industry is adding more than 3 percent and Nomura Holdings is up almost 3 percent.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In economic news, producer prices in Japan were up 1.6 percent on year in March, the Bank of Japan said on Tuesday. That was beneath expectations for an increase of 1.7 percent, which would have been unchanged from the February reading following a downward revision from 1.8 percent.

On a monthly basis, producer prices rose 0.7 percent, accelerating from 0.2 percent in the previous month. Excluding international transportation, producer prices were up 0.6 percent on month and 1.5 percent on year after adding 0.2 percent on month and 1.7 percent on year in February.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 134 yen-range on Tuesday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong and South Korea are down 1.1 percent each, while China, Singapore and Taiwan are lower by between 0.4 and 0.6 percent each. Malaysia is up 0.2 percent. Indonesia is closed for Eid-ul-Fitr, while New Zealand is closed for ANZAC Day. On Wall Street, stocks continued to show a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Monday following the lackluster performance seen last Friday. The major averages once again spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

The major averages eventually ended the day mixed. While the Nasdaq fell 35.25 points or 0.3 percent to 12,037.20, the S&P 500 inched up 3.52 points or 0.1 percent to 4,137.04 and the Dow rose 66.44 points or 0.2 percent to 33,875.40.

Meanwhile, the major European markets finished the day little changed. While the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed just below the unchanged line.

Crude oil futures settled higher on Monday following reports that OPEC is planning additional supply cuts. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.89 or 1.1 percent at $78.76 a barrel.