Overnight

What happens in the U.S. doesn't always stay there. Shares in Asia were up overnight but not with a lot of conviction as comments by New York Fed President William Dudley and Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart pushed American shares down after both said in public statements that the U.S. central bank could raise the nation's short-term interest rates at its September policy meeting.

The Nikkei Stock Average meanwhile gained 0.6 on the back of a weaker yen, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.1%. Korea’s Kospi traded 0.7% lower. The dollar edged up 0.2 percent to 100.485 yen during Asian trade after falling to 99.550 overnight, its lowest since June 24. 

The WSJ reported: China got a tepid response from investors on its plans to further open up its equity markets, contributing to Wednesday’s mixed performance in shares across Asia.

At the midday break, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose just 0.2%, with the Shanghai Composite declining by 0.2%.

Both the Shenzhen Composite Index and the ChiNext index, a listing board focused on fast-growing startups, were up 0.3%.

Late Tuesday, China gave the green light to a stock-trading link between Hong Kong and the tech-heavy Shenzhen exchanges, while scrapping important limits on how much foreigners can invest in the country’s stocks in an effort to entice global investors. However, daily trading flows into both Shenzhen and Shanghai, China’s other main market, will remain capped at 13 billion yuan ($1.96 billion) a day, and many Shenzhen-listed companies still won’t be easily accessible.

Market analysts were skeptical over how attractive this trading link would be to foreign investors, who can already invest in China’s domestic markets through the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors scheme.

The consensus seem to be investors are waiting to see what central banks are going to do.