Asian stock exchanges largely opened Thursday's trading down as investors balanced hopes of a new interest rate cut from the Fed with continued concern over the Trump administration's economic plans.
In Shanghai and Shenzhen, the composite indexes had fallen by 0.9 and 0.3 percent, respectively, around lunchtime.
Nor did Hong Kong bring any cheerful tones as the Hang Seng index lost 0.9 percent.
In Tokyo, the key Nikkei 225 index hovered around zero, while the broader Topix index went against the trend and grew 0.4 percent.
