Investing.com - Asia shares made gains by the lunch break Wednesday with an upbeat survey out of China aiding sentiment and investors looking ahead to the release of minutes from the most recent Federal Reserve board meeting on monetary policy.
The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.67% and the Nikkei 225 gained 0.22%.
In China, the Caixin services PMI for March is due with an expected level of 51.4, up from a 51.2 final in February.
The Shanghai Composite edged up 0.09%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was last up 0.08%.
The yuan fell against the dollar Wednesday after the People's Bank of China set a weaker fixing for a second consecutive session at 6.4754 compared with 6.4663.
Overnight, U.S. stocks fell broadly on Tuesday amid mounting fears of a weakening long-term economic outlook, as the major indices posted their worst two-day decline since early-February.
On Tuesday morning, Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde said Tuesday that the global economic outlook has dimmed over the last six months, citing low inflation, weak growth opportunities, a lack of new jobs and high debt throughout the world.
Separately, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta lowered its first quarter U.S. GDP growth estimate to 0.4%, from previous forecasts of 0.7% due primarily to soft vehicle sales in March, as well as declines in real consumer spending growth and real equipment investment growth. As a result, gold prices bounced from five-week lows in Tuesday's session while the Japanese Yen soared to one-year highs against the dollar, after investors sought shelter in the safe-haven assets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 133.68 or 0.75% to 17,603.32, closing near session-lows. It came as the Dow Jones Transportation Average fell 44.53 or 0.57% to 7,772.46, posting its ninth loss in the last 11 sessions. As a result, the Dow Transportation Index moved below its 200-day moving average for the first time in more than a week.
The NASDAQ Composite index, meanwhile, fell 47.87 or 0.98% to 4,843.93, while the S&P 500 Composite index dipped 20.96 or 1.01% to 2,045.17. On the S&P 500 all 10 sectors closed in the red, as stocks in the Utilities and Financials lagged. In total, four industries decreased by more than 1% on Tuesday. The S&P 500 briefly turned negative for the year during the session.