Investing.com - Asian shares turned weaker on Tuesday as caution ruled ahead of tomorrow's Fed decision on interest rates and growing concern over a stronger yen spurred by chances of the U.K. exiting from the European Union.
The Nikkei 224 dropped 1.25%. The Shanghai Composite was down a slight 0.02% heading into the lunch break, while the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.99% after returning from a holiday break.
Investors continued to closely monitor Brexit polls in the U.K. after a YouGov poll showed that the "Leave," campaign overtook the "Stay" campaign in the latest survey, reversing a narrow lead from a poll last week.
It came after another survey taken by research firm ORB found that 55% of British voters support leaving the European Union, while 45% are in favor of staying in the European bloc.
The yuan was barely changed against the dollar Tuesday morning even though the People's Bank of China slightly strengthened the fixing at 6.5791 compared with Monday's midpoint of 6.5805.
Overnight, U.S. stocks fell slightly on Monday, extending losses from late last week, as domestic crude futures remained under $50 a barrel and Microsoft (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:MSFT) weighed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average following its $26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn (NYSE:NYSE:LNKD).
The Dow fell 132.86 or 0.74% to 17,732.48, suffering its third consecutive losing session since closing above 18,000 last Wednesday. The NASDAQ Composite index lost 46.11 or 0.94% to 4,848.44, while the S&P 500 Composite index dipped 17.01 or 0.81% to 2,079.06, both suffering their fourth straight decline.
On the S&P 500 all 10 sectors closed in the red. Stocks in the Basic Materials, Technology and Consumer Goods industries lagged, each falling by more than 1% on the session. Despite the recent losses, stocks on Wall Street still remain near 2016-yearly highs, up more than 10% from February-lows.