The Asian stock markets are expected to see continued selling pressure on Wednesday due to the political situation in Greece, which is headed for a new round of elections after lawmakers failed to form a coalition government. The new elections are seen as referendum on whether Greece should remain in the Eurozone, adding to the recent worries about the outlook for Europe.
In addition, rating agency Moody's Investors Service has downgraded 26 Italian banks after lowering the credit ratings of the country by a notch in mid-February. Moody's said the ratings for Italian banks are now amongst the lowest in advanced European countries.
However, the markets may see support from some upbeat U.S. economic data. Homebuilder confidence reached a five-year high in May, while New York manufacturing activity expanded much faster than expected and retail sales edged up by 0.1 percent in April.
The major U.S. averages finished lower on Tuesday as the Dow fell 63.35 points or 0.5 percent to finish at 12,632.00, while the NASDAQ slipped 8.82 points or 0.3 percent to end at 2,893.76 and the S&P 500 dropped 7.69 points or 0.6 percent to 1,330.66.
The major European markets also were down on Tuesday. The CAC 40 of France dropped by 0.61 percent and the DAX of Germany finished down by 0.79 percent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. lost 0.51 percent and the SMI of Switzerland closed down by 0.18 percent.
The Asian bourses were mixed on Tuesday as Malaysia lost 0.89 percent, while Japan's Nikkei was down 0.8 percent, South Korea's KOSPI fell 0.77 percent, China's Shanghai Composite eased 0.25 percent and Indonesia eased 0.2 percent.
Moving higher, Thailand jumped 1.63 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 0.81 percent, Singapore's Straits Times collected 0.44 percent and Taiwan added 0.25 percent.
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