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Asian stocks skidded on Wednesday after weak earnings dragged down US equities, while the dollar was trading just below highs hit earlier this week.
S&P 500 mini futures were down about 0.4 per cent from late U.S. levels, after U.S. equities tumbled on weak earnings from bellwethers IBM and United Technologies, while Apple Inc slumped in late trading after posting its results.
Financial spreadbetters expected Britain's FTSE 100 to open 24 points or 0.4 per cent lower; Germany's DAX to open 40 points or 0.3 per cent lower; and France's CAC 40 to open 11 to 13 points or as much as 0.3 per cent lower on Wednesday.
"As goes Apple, as goes the US stock market. So, unless we see something spectacular from European markets, we should see a modestly risk-off session in the US," Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG, said in a note.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan extended losses and was down about 1.1 per cent.
Japan's Nikkei stock index ended down 1.2 per cent, snapping its six-day rising streak and pulling away from Tuesday's nearly four-week closing high as the Apple news reverberated on related tech shares.
"Since the market had been rising, such bad news can take a toll," said Hikaru Sato, a senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities. "But the impact from Apple's weak forecast should not drag on."
Spot gold shed about 0.7 per cent on the day to $1,090.95 per ounce, after plunging to five-year lows on Monday as investors unloaded bullion against a backdrop of improving risk sentiment after Greece agreed on a plan with its creditors that will keep it in the euro zone for now.
Standard & Poor's on Tuesday upgraded Greece's sovereign credit rating by two notches and revised its outlook to stable from negative, citing euro zone countries' initial agreement to start negotiations with Athens on a third bailout.
The euro edged down slightly on the day at $1.0935, toward Monday's three-month low of $1.0808.
The dollar index was steady at 97.331 after rising as high as 98.151 in the previous session, its highest level since late April.
The dollar edged down about 0.2 per cent against the yen to 123.67 yen after scaling a six-week high of 124.48 yen on Tuesday.
Crude oil futures remained under pressure as investors worried about ample supply.
US crude was down 1.4 per cent at $50.13, while Brent shed about 0.9 per cent to $56.53.
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