The development on Asia's leading stock exchanges was cautious in the initial Tuesday trading.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange's Nikkei 225 index was down 0.1 percent when investors took lunch, while the broader Topix index was trading near zero.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng was simultaneously down 0.5 percent, while Shanghai and Shenzhen's composite index stood at plus 0.3 percent and minus 0.1 percent, respectively.
South Korea's Kospi index pointed to plus 0.2 percent.
Investors are trying to get a grip on how the US tariff negotiations with individual countries will go, while concerns are simmering that Donald Trump will try to fire the American central bank chief Jerome Powell.
