Investing.com - Asian shares were mixed on Wednesday with China down ahead of trade data later this week and Fed minutes from the September meeting ahead.
The Shanghai Composite Index eased 0.39% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.88%. The yuan was down against the dollar after the People's Bank of China weakened the fixing for a sixth consecutive business day. The yuan was traded around 6.7193 to the dollar, a six-year low as expectations grow for a Fed rate hike by the end of the year.
The S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.29% and the Nikkei 225 bucked the trend, up 0.25% as a Bank of Japan board member called for further easing if the global economy stumbles.
In Japan core machinery orders for August jumped 11.6%, well above the 6.5% gain expected year-on-year. But the month-on-month core machinery order figure slipped 2.2%, less than the 5.5% drop expected, but the first such decline in three months.
Japan's Cabinet Office repeated an assessment that "a pickup is seen in machinery orders" and noted that while August machinery orders dropped, the decline was not large and didn't show a change in trend as the orders increased for the second consecutive month.
Earlier, the Westpac consumer sentiment index for October rose 1.1%, compared with a previous reading of a gain of 0.3%.
Westpac Chief Economist Bill Evans said the RBA is unlikely to cut the cash rate in November as it has become clear that the new RBA governor will give considerable weighting to "financial stability."
"Indeed, while we give little probability to a further rate cut at the next meeting, our assessment of the growth outlook, including the shape of the construction cycle, points to rates remaining on hold for the foreseeable future," Evans said.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were lower after the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Healthcare, Basic Materials and Utilities sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.09%, while the S&P 500 index declined 1.24%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 1.54%.