Investing.com - Asian shares held weaker on Tuesday with early yuan figures from China on trade failing to lift sentiment.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.32%. Japan's SoftBank said Monday that quarterly operating profits increased 50% on year to 479.2 billion yen ($4.33 billion).
In South Korea, Samsung Group Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee faced charges linked to the bribery of South Korea's former president Park Geun-hye. A 12-year jail term is being pursued by prosecutors and the South Korean court is expected to make its ruling on Aug. 25, Reuters said Monday. Samsung Electronics (KS:005930) stock rose 0.29%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index diped 0.02% and the Shanghai Compoiste fell 0.09% The A&P/ASX 200 in Australia fell 0.81%.
China's exports and imports showed health growth in July in yuan terms, data released on Tuesday showed, with key dollar-denominatred figures due later in the day.
China reported July exports were up 11.2% in yuan terms while imports were up 14.7% in yuan terms from a year ago.
Market watchers keep their eyes on the world's second-largest economy ahead of a key Communist Party meeting in the fall.
China is expected to report exports rose 10.9% in July year-on-year, down from an 11.3% gain in June, while imports rose 16.6%, compared to a 17.2% increase in the previous month for a trade balance surplus of $46.08 billion, wider than the $42.77 billion in June.
Earlier, Japan said its unadjusted current account fro June reached ¥935 billion, wider than the ¥814 billion in surplus seen, but narrower than the ¥1.654 trillion in May. The NAB Business Confidence survey for July came in at plus-12 from plus-9 and the related NAB Business Survey stood steady at plus-15, solid figures for the closely watched indicators of sentiment.
Overnight, the Dow closed at a record high for the ninth-straight session on Monday, led by an uptick in shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), as risk appetite among investors continued unabated ahead of a slew of department store earnings due later week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 22,118. The S&P 500 closed 0.16% higher while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6383.77, up 0.51%.
Investors continued to pile into shares of Apple following the tech giant’s better-than-expected earnings report last week, pushing the three main U.S. indexes to close in positive for the session. The Dow notched its tenth-straight record close.