Asian stocks set to continue selloff on US steep declines; Sydney opens lower

See Kit Tang

Asian shares braced for continued selloff on Tuesday, after stocks on Wall Street fell for a third session as investors awaited earnings and fretted signs of a slowing global economy.

Australia's key S&P ASX 200 index opened 0.1 percent lower, after closing at an eight-month low in the previous trading session. Banking majors extended losses, with Commonwealth Bank of Australia andAustralia and New Zealand Bank dropping 0.6 percent each.

However, miners jumped; Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals surged 1.1 and 2.3 percent, respectively, after spot iron ore rallied 4 percent to $83.10 a tonne overnight.

Japanese shares will play catchup after being shut for a public holiday on Monday. The benchmark Nikkei is headed for a lower open; Futures in Osaka traded at 15,230, below the index's previous close of 15,300.

Symbol	Name	Price		Change	%Change
NIKKEI	Nikkei 225 Index	15043.95		-256.60	-1.68%
HSI	Hang Seng Index	23143.38	---	UNCH	0%
ASX 200	S&P/ASX 200	5173.60		18.10	0.35%
SHANGHAI	Shanghai Composite Index	2366.10		-8.44	-0.36%
KOSPI	KOSPI Index	1927.21	---	UNCH	0%
CNBC 100	CNBC 100 ASIA IDX	6879.74		-37.34	-0.54%

U.S. stocks plunged on Monday, dragged down by declines in energy and airline shares on growing fears over the spread of Ebola. Falling below its 200-day moving average, the S&P 500 shed 1.7 percent, down 7 percent from its all-time high nearly four weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.3 percent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 1.5 percent.

In Asia, attention is likely to fall on Singapore, which will announce its third quarter gross domestic product (GDP) along with its monetary policy decision at 0800 SIN/HK.

Economic growth is forecast to have improved in the July-September period, according to a Reuters poll, rising 2.8 percent from the year before, versus the 2.4 percent growth in the second quarter. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy is forecast to have expanded 1.8 percent after eking out a 0.1 growth in the previous quarter.