Asian shares wilt in shadow of Wall Street\\\'s earnings woes

Asian stocks skidded on Wednesday after weak earnings dragged down US equities, while the dollar was trading just below highs hit earlier this week. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS extended losses and was down about 1.1 per cent. Japan's Nikkei stock index .N225 ended down 1.2 per cent. China stocks fell slightly. Hong Kong stocks also showed a downward correction. The CSI300 index fell 0.7 per cent, to 4,138.65, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.4 per cent, to 4,000.79 points. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dropped 1.1 per cent, to 25,251.10 points, while the Hong Kong China Enterprises Index lost 1.9 per cent, to 11,650.84. Australian shares ran out of puff on Wednesday. The S&P/ASX 200 index dropped 1 per cent or 59.9 points to 5,646.8. New Zealand's benchmark NZX50 index rose 31.7 points or 0.53 per cent to 5,911.18 in early trade. Spot gold XAU= shed about 0.7 per cent on the day to $1,090.95 per ounce. The euro edged down slightly on the day at $1.0935 EUR=.  The dollar index was steady at 97.331.DXY.  The dollar edged down about 0.2 per cent against the yen, according to Reuters.