Tokyo stocks open lower after Wall St drops

Tokyo stocks opened lower on Tuesday, following drops on Wall Street amid fears of a fresh escalation in the US trade row with China.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index, which fell for the third straight session on Monday, lost another 0.48 percent or 101.18 points to 21,048.62 in early trade while the broader Topix index was down 0.27 percent or 4.34 points at 1,585.22.

"Selling will likely lead trading following sharp drops in US stocks," Okasan Online Securities chief strategist Yoshihiro Ito said in a note.

"But a breather in the yen's rise against the dollar is a supportive factor," he added.

Wall Street was dealt a blow after Bloomberg reported that President Donald Trump's administration plans more tariffs on China if talks between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping next month are unsuccessful.

The news came on top of lingering worries over slowing earnings growth and anxiety about US elections, dampening investor sentiment.

The dollar has rebounded from the 111-yen range, trading at 112.34 yen against 112.32 yen in New York Monday afternoon.

The yen hardly moved after government data early Tuesday confirmed Japan's jobless rate remained low, edging down to 2.3 percent in September from 2.4 percent in the previous month.

In individual stocks trade, Sony was down 1.38 percent at 5,722 yen hours before its release of April-September results.

Nintendo also fell 1.21 percent to 34,250 yen as it was also set to announce first-half results later Tuesday while Honda gained 0.22 percent to 2,991.5 yen.