Australia

Australian shares look set to open steady on the back of a small dip on Wall Street overnight as falling crude prices and trade jitters held markets in check.

In futures trading, the SPI200 futures contract was flat at 6207 points at 8.30 Sydney time. The Australian dollar is buying 74.26 US cents, from 74.23 US cents on Wednesday.

On Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 45.15 points, or 0.18 per cent at 25,583 points, while the S&P500 is down 0.75 points or 0.03 per cent at 2857 points.

The tech-heavy NASDAQ index is up 4.66 points or 0.06 per cent at 7888 points.

Out today: AGL, Crown and Suncorp report full-year earnings.

Asia

China says it will impose 25 per cent tariffs on a further $US16 billion of US goods, making good on its promise to retaliate against new American levies.

The announcement is the latest round in a tit-for-tat trade conflict between the world's two largest economies which has left global markets on edge.

China's levies will come into force on August 23, according to its finance ministry.

Japan's Nikkei edged lower on Wednesday as the market braced for the start of US-Japan trade talks the next day, offsetting gains in companies which posted strong results such as Nikon and Daikin.

The Nikkei share average ended 0.1 percent lower at 22,644.31 points.

The Shanghai Composite index fell 0.3 per cent, and the blue-chip CSI300 index was 0.6 per cent lower.

Technology and energy shares helped Hong Kong's broader index close higher. The Hang Seng index was up 110.26 points or 0.4 per cent at 28,359.14. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index rose 0.3 percent to 10,901.18.

Stronger-than-expected July export data on Wednesday appeared to show that an earlier round of US tariffs had yet to significantly affect demand for China's goods.

Technology shares were boosted by index heavyweight Tencent Holdings, which gained 2 per cent. Tencent shares have rallied in recent sessions on a report that Google is in talks with Tencent and other Chinese companies to offer its cloud services in China. 

Europe

European shares dipped on Wednesday as poor corporate earnings in the pharmaceutical sector weighed on sentiment.

The pan-European STOXX 600 ended the session down 0.2 per cent, with the European healthcare index leading losers, down 1 per cent.

The Euro Stoxx index down 0.6 per cent so far in August amid trade concerns.

Britain's UDG Healthcare also took a hit, down more than 10 per cent after flagging weakness at its contract sales and patient support services operations.

Italian bank BPER Banca lost nearly 6 per cent, with one analyst citing disappointing quarterly interest income.

French supermarket chain Casino shed 6 per cent after broker Bernstein cut the stock to "underperform".

North America

The S&P 500 has closed slightly lower as falling crude prices and trade jitters held markets in check.

The Nasdaq on Wednesday posted its seventh consecutive daily advance, while the Dow was down marginally. The S&P 500's dip occurred as the index has inched closer in recent days to its record high set on Jan. 26.

China introduced new 25 per cent tariffs on $US16 billion ($22 billion) worth of goods imported from the US in the latest tit-for-tat in the escalating trade dispute between the world's two largest economies.

Trade-sensitive industrial companies were the biggest drag on the Dow. The decline was led by Boeing and Caterpillar.

Energy stocks fell 0.8 per cent as crude prices dropped as a result of slowing Chinese demand and trade concerns.

Technology provided the largest boost to the S&P 500, led by Microsoft, Facebook and Alphabet.

Shares of Tesla fell 2.4 per cent as its board evaluated Elon Musk's idea of taking the electric car-maker private, a day after the chief executive surprised the market by floating the proposal on Twitter.

 

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Morningstar with AAP, Reuters and Bloomberg 

Lex Hall is a Morningstar content editor, based in Sydney.

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