Asian stocks skidded on Wednesday after weak earnings dragged down U.S. equities, while the dollar was trading just below highs hit earlier this week. S&P 500 mini futures ESc1 were down about 0.4 percent from late U.S. levels, after U.S. equities tumbled on weak earnings from bellwethers IBM (IBM) and United Technologies (UTX), while Apple Inc (AAPL.O) slumped in late trading after posting its results. Financial spreadbetters expected Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE to open 24 points or 0.4 percent lower; Germany's DAX .GDAXI to open 40 points or 0.3 percent lower; and France's CAC 40 .FCHI to open 11 to 13 points or as much as 0.3 percent lower on Wednesday. "As goes Apple, as goes the U.S. stock market. So, unless we see something spectacular from European markets, we should see a modestly risk-off session in the U.S.," Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG, said in a note. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS extended losses and was down about 1.1 percent. Japan's Nikkei stock index .N225 ended down 1.2 percent, 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 XAU= shed about 0.7 percent 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 EUR=, toward Monday's three-month low of $1.0808. The dollar index was steady at 97.331 .DXY after rising as high as 98.151 in the previous session, its highest level since late April. The dollar edged down about 0.2 percent against the yen to 123.67 yen JPY= after scaling a six-week high of 124.48 yen on Tuesday. Crude oil futures remained under pressure as investors worried about ample supply. U.S. crude CLc1 was down 1.4 percent at $50.13, while Brent LCOc1 shed about 0.9 percent to $56.53. Source: Reuters
