Asian Stocks Mostly Lower, European Stocks Mostly Higher

Asian stocks were mostly lower on Wednesday as poor tech earnings from U.S. companies likely dampened investor optimism. Australia's ASX index underperformed its Asian counterparts and lost 0.62 percent after trading higher by more than 1.2 percent earlier in the day. A surprising fall in inflation has raised the chances of a surprise cut in interest rates next week when the country's central bank gathers, Australia-based ABC News noted. China's Shanghai index fell 0.37 percent, Japan's Nikkei index fell 0.36 percent, Taiwan's TSEC index fell 0.22 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 0.21 percent. Find out what's going on in today's market and bring any questions you have to Benzinga's PreMarket Prep. India's Mumbai Sensex index rose 0.22 percent. European stocks were mostly higher with more than 4 hours of trading remaining. Germany's DAX index outperformed its counterparts and was higher by 0.32 percent while the UK's FTSE index was lower by 0.31 percent. France's CAC index was higher by 0.10 percent. Brent and Crude futures were higher Wednesday morning ahead of many oil companies reporting their quarterly results. Gold futures ticked slightly higher while most major metals were trading slightly lower.