There were sour faces on several of Asia's leading exchanges in the initial Tuesday trading. In Tokyo, the important Nikkei 225 had fallen by 1 percent at lunchtime, while the broader Topix index was down 0.8.
In China, the Shanghai composite index was instead up 0.2 percent, while the Shenzhen composite index pointed downwards by 0.3 percent.
The Hong Kong stock exchange was closed due to a public holiday.
