Overnight

Follow Wall Street at your own peril and that's what Asian shares overnight appeared to do as most markets there traded lower after Wall Street disappointing earnings reports coupled with weak economic data sent the U.S. market south.

The ASX 200 led the sell off parade, falling 1.8%, next was the New Zealand's NZX 50 down 1.5%, the Kospi dropped 1.4%, the Hang Send lower 0.8% and the Shanghai Composite lost 0.4%. It was the lowest level got the ASX 200 in a month. Most of the damage was in financial and commodity sectors.The Nikkei 225 was flat.

U.S. crude fell 1.4 percent to $49.30 on Wednesday. It is down 3.1 percent this week.Traders said Brent futures retreated 1.1 percent to $50.21, bringing this week's losses to 3 percent, as the glut in oil continued. The U.S. dollar, according to the WSJ, edged up 0.1 percent to 104.295 yen after touching the highest level in almost three months on Tuesday. Sterling retreated 0.2 percent to $1.2164 on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, it slumped to as low as $1.2082, its weakest in 2 1/2 weeks after Bank of England (BoE) Governor Mark Carney said there were limits to the central bank's ability to ignore the effect of the currency's slide on inflation. His comments, ahead of a policy meeting next week, stifled expectations for more monetary stimulus in Europe. The euro, which slid to a 7 1/2-month low of $1.0851 on Tuesday, recovered to end the session flat, and was trading little changed at $1.0889 on Wednesday.

The Australian dollar jumped 0.6 percent to $0.7689 to post its biggest increase in a week after inflation ran slightly faster than expected, boosting bets the central bank will hold policy steady into next year, the Journal noted. Gold was up 0.1% at $1274.76 pushing higher after approaching 3-week high the day before. Some said the rally owed much to India's late-October festival.