Asia shares mostly weaker as investors await word on Greece debt

Investing.com - The Nikkei was flat in Asia on Tuesday while Sydney fell after data sets on wages and the current account respectively with Greece the main focus ahead.

The leaders of Germany, France and Greece's international creditors worked late Monday with "real intensity" to clinch a deal in debt negotiations ahead of a June 5 deadline to make a €305 million payment to the International Monetary Fund, Reuters reported.

The Nikkei 225 fell 0.01%, while theS&P/ASX 200 fell 1.05%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.99%, while the Hang Seng index fell 0.26%.

In Australia, the current account deficit reached A$10.7 billion, slightly narrower than the A$10.8 billion deficit seen in the first quarter.

Japan reported April average cash earnings rose 0.9%, well above the 0.4% gain seen year-on-year.

Earlier in New Zealand the terms of trade index rose 1.5% quarter-on-quarter with downtrends seen in export and import prices.

Overnight, U.S. stocks rose modestly on Monday reversing losses from one session earlier, amid a flurry of M&A activity.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Composite index each rose more than 0.15%, while the NASDAQ Composite index also moved higher spurred by gains in pharmaceutical and biotech stocks following a wave of positive data at the nation's largest cancer conference over the weekend. The Dow gained 29.69 or 0.16% to 18,040.37, while the NASDAQ gained 12.90 or 0.25% paring earlier profits during a late sell-off.

The S&P 500, meanwhile, added 4.34 points or 0.21% to 2,111.73, as eight of 10 sectors closed in the green. Stocks in the Technology, Consumer Services and Health Care sectors led, while stocks in the Telecommunications and Energy industries lagged.

On Monday data showed that manufacturing activity in the U.S. expanded at a faster pace than expected in May added to expectations for a rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

In a report, the Institute for Supply Management said its index of purchasing managers rose to 52.8 last month from a reading of 51.5 in April. Analysts had expected the manufacturing PMI to edge up to 52.0 in May.

Earlier Monday, the Commerce Department reported that U.S. personal spending was unchanged in April, compared to expectations for a gain of 0.2%. Personal spending rose 0.5% in March, whose figure was revised up from a previously reported gain of 0.4%.

The report also showed personal income rose 0.4% in April, above forecasts for a 0.3% increase and after holding flat in March.