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

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks skidded on Wednesday after weak earnings dragged down U.S. equities, while the dollar was trading just below highs hit earlier this week.

S&P 500 mini futures were down about 0.4 percent from late U.S. levels, after U.S. equities tumbled on weak earnings from bellwethers IBM and United Technologies , while Apple Inc slumped in late trading after posting its results.

Financial spreadbetters expected Britain's FTSE 100 <.FTSE> to open 24 points or 0.4 percent lower; Germany's DAX <.GDAXI> to open 40 points or 0.3 percent lower; and France's CAC 40 <.FCHI> to open 11 to 13 points or as much as 0.3 percent lower on Wednesday.

"As goes Apple, as goes the U.S. stock market. So, unless we see something spectacular from European markets, we should see a modestly risk-off session in the U.S.," Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG, said in a note.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> extended losses and was down about 1.1 percent.

Japan's Nikkei stock index <.N225> ended down 1.2 percent, snapping its six-day rising streak and pulling away from Tuesday's nearly four-week closing high as the Apple news reverberated on related tech shares.

"Since the market had been rising, such bad news can take a toll," said Hikaru Sato, a senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities. "But the impact from Apple's weak forecast should not drag on."

Spot gold shed about 0.7 percent on the day to $1,090.95 per ounce, after plunging to five-year lows on Monday as investors unloaded bullion against a backdrop of improving risk sentiment after Greece agreed on a plan with its creditors that will keep it in the euro zone for now.

Standard & Poor's on Tuesday upgraded Greece's sovereign credit rating by two notches and revised its outlook to stable from negative, citing euro zone countries' initial agreement to start negotiations with Athens on a third bailout.

The euro edged down slightly on the day at $1.0935 , toward Monday's three-month low of $1.0808.

The dollar index was steady at 97.331 <.DXY> after rising as high as 98.151 in the previous session, its highest level since late April.

The dollar edged down about 0.2 percent against the yen to 123.67 yen after scaling a six-week high of 124.48 yen on Tuesday.

Crude oil futures remained under pressure as investors worried about ample supply.

U.S. crude was down 1.4 percent at $50.13, while Brent shed about 0.9 percent to $56.53.

(Additional reporting by Ayai Tomisawa in Tokyo; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

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