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| Shares in Asia weaker with focus turning to U.S. jobs data |
Asian shares fell on Wednesday with Tokyo shut for a holiday and investors looking ahead to U.S. jobs data at the end of the week for direction.
The S&P/ASX 200 eased 1.13%.The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.30%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was last down 1.06%.
The yuan fell against the dollar on Wednesday after the People's Bank of China set the fixing weaker for the first time in three days at 6.4943, compared with 6.4565.
Overnight, U.S. stocks pared early losses on Tuesday but still closed broadly lower, as soft manufacturing data in China and a surprise rate cut from the Australian central bank weighed on global equities, offsetting gains from a rally in Apple shares .
In overnight trading, the Caixin Media Co. reported that China's factory activity in April fell by 0.3 to 49.4, marking the 14th straight month that its manufacturing index has remained in contraction territory. It came days after data from China's National Bureau of Statistics reported similar weakness in the factory sector after its official manufacturing PMI fell by 0.1 on the month to 50.1.
Investors also reacted to a 25 basis point cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday to 1.75%, the lowest on record. The latest easing measure from a top central bank intensified concerns from investors that a global economic slowdown could be on the verge of resurfacing.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 140.25 or 0.78% to 17,750.91, while the S&P 500 Composite index dropped 18.06 or 0.87% to 2,063.37, erasing all of the gains from the opening session of the month. The NASDAQ Composite index, meanwhile, fell 54.37 or 1.13% to 4,763.22, as semiconductor stocks weighed. On the S&P 500, all 10 sectors closed in the red as stocks in the Basic Materials and Energy sectors lagged. In total, four sectors dropped by at least 1% on the day.
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