Asian stocks traded cautiously in front of...>

STOCKS: Asian stocks traded cautiously in front of Tuesday's key US CPI release,

with all of the region's major indices lower.

- Japan's Nikkei 225 pared its early losses to trade flat on the day. Automakers

& machinery names dragged, with defensive names outperforming. USDJPY moved back

above 106.50 which helped the benchmark to reverse the bulk of its losses.

- Hong Kong & Chinese stocks were lower, with the Hang Seng trading -0.3% & the

CSI 300 -0.4%. Consumer staples & energy weighed in Hong Kong, while the

Utilities & Financial sectors were the only 2 groups to trade higher. The PBoC's

meagre liquidity injections did little to stoke risk on flow.

- The ASX 200 underperformed, last trading 0.6% lower with materials leading the

way as the heavyweight miners fell afoul of lower iron ore prices.

- US index futures were largely unchanged.