Investing.com - Stocks in Asia fell early Tuesday, as investors throughout the region were cautious ahead of Chinese manufacturing data later in the day.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.3%, led lower by the materials sector. China is Australia's largest trading partner so worries over the pace of China's economic growth weigh heavily on the Australian dollar and iron-ore producers.
Iron-ore miner BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) was down 1.7%, Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) tumbled 1.2% and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) was off 2.2%, after the commodity fell to a fresh five-year low US$79.80 a ton on Monday.
Markets in Tokyo were closed for the Autumn Equinox, a national holiday in Japan.
Overnight, U.S. stocks fell on after existing U.S. home sales numbers disappointed investors.
The Dow 30 fell 0.62%, the S&P 500 index fell 0.80%, while the NASDAQ Composite index fell 1.14%.
The National Association of Realtors reported earlier that existing home sales in the U.S. unexpectedly fell 1.8% to an annual unit rate of 5.05 million in August. Analysts had expected existing home sales to rise 1% to 5.20 million units.