Investing.com - Asian shares were mostly weaker on Tuesday with Sydney up slightly to buck the trend and investors looking to Tokyo for the latest word on Toshiba.
The Shanghai Composite eased 0.46% and the Hang Seng Index fell 0.81%. Japan's Nikkei 225 declined 0.55%.
In corporate news, Foxconn has offered a $27 billion bid for Toshiba's memory chip unit, the Wall Street Journal reported. Toshiba put its NAND flash memory unit up for sale last month in a bid to cover billions in losses from its U.S. nuclear energy unit Westinghouse.
Toshiba was slated to file earnings on Tuesday, after delaying to do so twice previously. Toshiba shares dropped by 2.05%. As well, shares in Sharp were also in the red, selling off by 10.4% on concerns it may lose the race to develop the next-generation OLED screen for smartphones to South Korea's LG.
South Korea's Kospi fell by 0.58%. Concerns over geopolitical tensions continue to build on the Korean Peninsula after the U.S. deployed a carrier strike group closer to the region, and as joint U.S.-Korea military drills continue till the end of the month.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose however, up 0.08%. In Australia from a National Australia Bank survey, business confidencecame in at plus-6 in March, below plus-7 the previous month, while the business surveyrose to plus-14 from plus-9.
Overnight, the Federal Reserve's plans to raise U.S. interest rates gradually are aimed at sustaining full employment and near-2-percent inflation without letting the economy overheat, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Monday.
"I think we have a healthy economy now," Yellen said at an event at the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy in Ann Arbor.
Yellen repeated earlier comments that the economy is expected to continue to grow at a moderate pace.
"Whereas before we had our foot pressed down on the gas pedal trying to give the economy all the oomph we possibly could, now allowing the economy to kind of coast and remain on an even keel -- to give it some gas but not so much that we are pressing down hard on the accelerator -- that’s a better stance of monetary policy," she said. "We want to be ahead of the curve and not behind it."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.01% higher at 20,658. The S&P 500 added 0.07% and the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.05% higher at 5880.93.
U.S. stocks closed above breakeven on Monday, despite rising political tensions while a sharp rise in oil prices boosted energy stocks.
Meanwhile, investors look ahead to the start of first quarter earnings season, as financials, mostly banks, report their results on Thursday. Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) report results on Thursday before the US market opens.