Asia-Pacific stocks mixed after Wall Street losses

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific nudged higher in Tuesday morning trade following overnight declines for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 on Wall Street.

Shares of companies related to South Korean conglomerate Samsung were mixed in Tuesday morning trade. Shares of Samsung Electronics slipped 0.25% while Samsung C&T fell 1.05%. Samsung Life Insurance rose 0.78%.

Those moves came after the South Korea's justice ministry announced Monday that the firm's heir Jay Y. Lee is set to be released on parole later this week, according to Reuters.

South Korea's broader Kospi sat below the flatline.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan gained 0.3% while the Topix index advanced 0.34%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.34%.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded below the flatline.

Overnight stateside, the Dow declined 106.66 points to 35,101.85 while the S&P 500 slipped about 0.1% to 4,432.35. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed, rising 0.16% to 14,860.18.

Worries about the impact of Covid on global growth continued to weigh on investor sentiment, with countries grappling with the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant of the virus.

Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours on Tuesday following a Monday tumble. International benchmark Brent crude futures advanced 0.45% to $69.35 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.68% to $66.93 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 92.978 following a climb late last week from below 92.4.

The Japanese yen traded at 110.33 per dollar, weaker than levels below 109 seen against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7327, below levels above $0.735 seen yesterday.