Asian markets are trading mostly in the red terrain in early deals on Tuesday, tracking weak cues from Wall Street, where stocks ended lower ahead of a tough corporate earnings season. Sentiments also remained dampened after Atlanta Federal Reserve President Dennis Lockhart said he would support a continued reduction in stimulus. Back on regional turf, Japanese Nikkei tumbled over two percent as the yen hovered near a four-week high against the dollar after last week's surprisingly weak jobs report raised concerns about the U.S. growth outlook. On the economic front, Japan posted a current account deficit of 592.8 billion yen in November, sliding into the red for the second straight month. The headline figure was well shy of forecasts for a shortfall of 368.9 billion yen following the 127.9 billion yen deficit in October.
Hang Seng declined 37.88 points or 0.17% to 22,850.88, Nikkei 225 tumbled 355.48 points or 2.23% to 15,556.58, Straits Times shed 12.49 points or 0.40% to 3,123.00, Seoul Composite decreased 1.77 points or 0.09% to 1,947.15 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 14.67 points or 0.17% to 8,551.53.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was up by 11.38 points or 0.57% to 2,020.94.