Stocks in Asia seesawed in Tuesday morning trade after shares on Wall Street plunged to their biggest day drop in more than three decades overnight, and the Philippines shut its markets temporarily.
South Korea's Kospi led losses among the region's major markets as it declined 2.2%.
Stocks in mainland China pared earlier losses but continued to trade lower. The Shanghai composite shed 0.65% while the Shenzhen composite slipped 0.908%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index advanced 0.32%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.46% after earlier jumping more than 2%. The Topix index advanced 0.37%.
Stocks in Australia continued to see gains. The S&P/ASX 200 was last up 3.27% after plummeting nearly 10% on Monday.
In a Tuesday release of minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) meeting in early March, the central bank said: "In considering the policy decision, members observed that it was becoming increasingly clear that COVID-19 would cause major disruption to economic activity around the world." The RBA cut its cash rate by 25 basis points in March to 0.5%, a new record low.
Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index traded 0.48% lower.
Meanwhile, Philippines halted trading at its stock exchange "until further notice." In a statement on the Philippine Stock Exchange website, it said trading was suspended "to ensure the safety of employees and traders in light of the escalating cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)." On Monday, the country's benchmark PSE Composite Index plunged almost 8%.
Investor focus on Tuesday will likely remain on the rapidly evolving situation surrounding the global coronavirus outbreak, which has infected more than 181,000 across the world and taken at least 7,113 lives, according to John Hopkins University.
"Drastic measures by the Fed and other Central Banks have failed to appease markets with investors still running towards the exit door of risk assets as governments step up their radical measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak," Rodrigo Catril, senior foreign exchange strategist at National Australia Bank, wrote in a note.
The U.S. Federal Reserve announced on Sunday a massive monetary stimulus, in an emergency move. On Monday, several central banks in Asia also announced measures to combat the impact of the coronavirus.
"The problem is that we have an uncertainty that the market is finding it hard to parameterize," Timothy Moe, co-head of Asia macro research at Goldman Sachs, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday. "The economic impact of this viral outbreak is still hard to fully determine and the numbers keep moving around a lot."
"I think as long as there is uncertainty about ... how to, you know, price and evaluate … the economic effect, the market is likely to remain in … quite a jittery mode," Moe said.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 2,997.10 points to close at 20,188.52. The S&P 500 dropped 12% to end its trading day at 2,386.13 — hitting its lowest level since December 2018. The Nasdaq Composite closed 12.3% lower at 6,904.59 in its worst day ever.
Monday's losses put the Dow down 31.7% from its all-time high and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq more than 29% below their records last month. The Dow fell to its lowest point since 2017. The Dow's drop was the worst decline since its "Black Monday" crash three decades ago when it fell more than 22%.
In the morning of Asian trading hours, oil prices attempted to bounce back from their Monday losses. International benchmark Brent crude futures were up 1.6% at $30.53 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures jumped 3.62% to $29.74 per barrel.
Oil prices plunged on Monday, with WTI dropping 9.5% to settle at $28.70 per barrel, while Brent fell 11.2% to settle at $30.05 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was last at 98.005 after an earlier high of 98.234.
The safe-haven Japanese yen traded at 106.37 per dollar after seeing an earlier high of 105.85. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.6121 after seeing levels above $0.64 last week.
— CNBC's Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
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March 17, 2020 at 10:05AM
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Stocks in Korea and China slip beyond 2% as Asia markets seesaw; Philippines suspends trading - CNBC
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