Investing.com - Asian shares traded weaker on Tuesday as investors turned focus back to the U.S. after a slew of regional data painted mixed picture and the Reserve Bank of Australia held steady at a record low 2% as expected.
The Shanghai Composite was down 1.06% at the break, recovering from earlier losses of more than 4%, while the S&P/ASX 200 eased 1.35%.
In China, the August CFLP Manufacturing and Service PMI reached the expected 49.7 reading while services eased to 53.4 from 53.9 in July.
The August Caixin final Manufacturing PMI reached 47.3, up from a a preliminary 47.1 reading -- a six-and-a-half-year low that did much to knock investor sentiment when it was released earlier this month, helping to fuel last week's calamitous global markets sell-off.
In Australia, the AIGroup Manufacturing Index rose 1.3 points to 51.7, while second quarter current account data are due from Australia, expected to show the deficit widened to A$19.0 billion, compared to an expected A$15.80 billion. Building approvals in Australia rose 4.2% in July, well above the 2.5% gain seen
The RBA's commodity price index is also due. In July the index fell 5.0%.
In Japan, second quarter financial Statements Statistics of Corporations showed a 5.6% gain for capital spending year-on-year, below the 9.0% gain seen.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the Healthcare, Utilities and Industrials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.69%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.84%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 1.05%.
Market research group Kingsbury International said its Chicago purchasing managers’ index declined by 0.3 points to 54.4 this month from a reading of 54.7 in July. Analysts had expected the index to hold steady at 54.7 in August.
Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said Friday it was still too early to decide whether to raise interest rates from near zero at the bank’s September meeting.
Investors were looking ahead to Friday’s U.S. jobs report for August.