OVERNIGHT

What's was down on Monday, rallied on Tuesday and faded again on Wednesday. That's what Asian stocks looked like so far this week. Confusing to many and just plain upsetting to others. An end to a three-day strike by oil workers in Kuwait contributed to the chaos as many investors try to figure out what's their next move.

Reuters reported: Oil prices again led the way by reversing much of Tuesday's sharp gains. Brent crude LCOc1 shed 83 cents to $43.20 a barrel, while U.S. crude oil CLc1 sank $1.02 to $40.11.

"In the near term we are going to see more downward pressure than upward," said IHS analyst Victor Shum. [O/R]

The retreat dulled risk appetites and dragged MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS down 0.5 percent. It had started at its highest since early November.

Chinese markets were no help as stocks in Shanghai .SSEC slipped 2.5 percent, with every sector from financial to telecoms in the red.

Japan's Nikkei .N225 clung to a 0.3 percent gain thanks to the recent pullback in the yen but was running into profit taking above the 17,000 barrier.

On Wall Street the Dow .DJI ended Tuesday with gains of 0.27 percent, while the S&P 500.SPX rose 0.31 percent to close above 2100 for the first time in 2016.

Gold moved higher hitting $1,252.30 an ounce while other commodities copper, iron ore and silver made gains. The upswing in such aided commodity currencies like the Australian dollar as it moved to $0.7827 while the U.S. dollar against the yen traded at 108.93. The euro moved to the $1.1369 level as traders await the ECB meeting this Wednesday.