HONG KONG - Asia stocks traded mixed on Wednesday and benchmark US Treasury yields were near multi-year highs, as investors sour on both stocks and bonds amid worries about the impact of higher-for-longer interest rates.
The dollar index rose on Tuesday, while the Japanese yen rose to a key level where Japanese officials are seen as potentially intervening to shore up the currency.
In Australia, inflation rose in August, driven by a surge in fuel prices, but the gain was in line with expectations.
A Bank of Thailand rate decision will be made later in the day.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1 percent early in the Asian trading day. The S&P 500 is down 3.7 percent so far this month. The US stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, were up 0.13 percent.
Australia's shares lost 0.25 percent, while Japan's Nikkei stock index fell 0.47 percent.
On Tuesday, Wall Street's main indexes followed Asian and European equities lower as investors digested last week's signal from the Federal Reserve that it would keep rates higher for longer than investors had previously expected.
The Dow lost its biggest one-day percentage decrease since March, while all three major averages ended in their lowest closing levels in well over three months.
The S&P 500 fell 1.14 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.57 percent.
In currencies, the dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies of other major trading partners, advanced 0.085 percent to 106.3, the highest since Nov 30. The European currency was down 0.1 percent at $1.0564, having lost 2.56 percent in a month.
The Japanese yen remained weak against the dollar at 149.06 per dollar. The strength of the dollar against the yen in particular has kept traders on the lookout for a intervention to prop up the Japanese currency, especially after Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said no options were off the table.
Financial markets believe the value of the 150 yen per dollar is a defining element that would motivate Japanese authorities to act, as they did last year.
In treasuries, benchmark 10-year Treasuries yields have surged to 16-year highs in response to the Federal Reserve's hawkish longer-term rate outlook last week. On the first day, the yield reached 4.5274 percent, compared to the US close of 4.558 percent on Tuesday.
The two-year yield rose with traders' expectations of higher Fed fund rates, reaching 5.0603 percent compared with a US close of 5.077 percent.
Oil prices rose following a two-week low early in Tuesday's session, as investors weighed expectations of tighter supply against demand concerns stemming from an uncertain economic outlook.
The US crude was up 0.34 per cent to $90.7 a barrel on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Brent crude rose to $94.26 per barrel from a record high of $69.26 at the end of last year.
Gold was slightly higher. Gold was traded for $1901.204 per ounce at the Mercantile Exchange.