Asian Stocks Close Mixed, European Stocks Mostly Lower On Poor Visibility

Asian stocks were mixed on Tuesday on no new notable macro-economic or central banking related news.

Australia's ASX index gained 0.57 percent as the commodity-heavy index gained on the heals of gold, metals & mining and materials sectors. In fact, the index hit a new six-month high but is still lower by nearly 5 percent over the past year.

China's Shanghai index gained 0.16 percent, while Japan's Nikkei index gained 0.08 percent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 0.93 percent, India's Mumbai index lost 0.68 percent and Taiwan's TSEC index lost 0.25 percent.

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"The growth outlook remains tepid at best and visibility is poor. Sentiment is now very fragile with the instinctive reflexive 'buy on dips' that has served investors well is now being supplanted by ‘sell the rally'," Mike Ingram, market strategist at BGC Partners in London told Reuters. "And that is precisely what we are seeing today."

European stocks were mostly lower with four hours of trading remaining. France's CAC index was among one of the worst performing major indices as it was lower by 1.03 percent.

Germany's DAX index was lower by 0.87 percent and the UK's FTSE index was lower by 0.17 percent.

Oil prices fluctuated between gains and losses ahead of Wednesday's U.S. supply data. The Wall Street Journal noted that experts it surveyed are expecting the U.S. Energy Information Administration to report a 400,000 barrel increase in its oil inventories.

Brent crude reversed early morning losses and was higher by 0.7 percent at $45.85 a barrel. At the same time, the price of WTI crude was nearly unchanged at $44.65 a barrel.