Investing.com - The Nikkei 225 fell 2.3% in morning trade Wednesday, hitting a three-week intraday low on a dim outlook for a weaker yen after the Bank of Japan in April minutes released today flagged rising wage pressures outpacing economic growth.
Japan's Softbank Corp. (TOKYO:9984), the largest shareholder in Alibaba with a 34.4% stake, dipped 3.4% on concern of how much control it will have when Alibaba lists in the U.S.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.6% and South Korea's KOSPI dropped by 0.3%.
The Shanghai Composite ended the morning down 0.38%, while theHang Seng index fell 1.08%.
Chinese economic data will be in focus for the rest of the week, with trade data coming on Thursday, which will be followed by inflation numbers on Friday.
Overnight, the Dow 30 fell 0.77%, the S&P 500 index fell 0.88%, while the NASDAQ Composite index fell 1.36%.
On the macroeconomic front, data revealed that the country's trade deficit narrowed to $40.38 billion in March from $41.87 billion in February, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of $42.30 billion.
Analysts were expecting the trade deficit to narrow to $40.30 billion in March.
After the close of European trade, the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 fell 0.68%, France's CAC 40 fell 0.78%, while Germany's DAX fell 0.65%. Meanwhile, in the U.K. the FTSE 100 fell 0.35%.