Asian stocks stumble as emerging currencies slide; Nikkei down 0.48%

Asian stocks traded mostly lower Tuesday as currencies in the region’s emerging markets continued to touch new lows against the U.S. dollar. 

In Asian trading Tuesday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.48%. Traders continue to figure out what the next moves will be from the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan. Some clues will be provided on that front when the Fed releases minutes from its most recent policy meeting Wednesday. 

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.25% after the Census and Statistics Department said that Hong Kong’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.3% last month. Analysts expected that reading. 

The Shanghai Composite inched up 0.11%. Everbright, a state-controlled brokerage firm, was banned from prop trading for three months on news of improper trades. The company also said that it mispriced 10 million yuan of government bonds in a Monday trade, Bloomberg reported. 

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index declined after the release of meeting minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia. 

"The Bank should neither close off the possibility of reducing rates further, nor signal an imminent intention to reduce rates further," said RBA in the minutes. 

"The course of the exchange rate would be important. It had declined since the previous meeting, though remained high by historical standards. It was possible the exchange rate would decline further over time, which would assist in rebalancing growth in the economy," the bank said regarding its desires to see the Aussie fall further. 

New Zealand’s NZSE 50 rose 0.14% even after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand announced new lending curbs on low deposit home loans. The central bank has previously said it could take steps to cool a property market that it has viewed as close to overheating. 

South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.13% while Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 0.43%. S&P 500 futures added 0.06% a day after the benchmark U.S. index lost 0.59%.