Meanwhile, oil prices tumbled following news of an increase in production from producers including Libya and Nigeria.
Brent crude settled 89 cents down at $46.02 a barrel, its weakest settlement level since Nov. 15, Reuters said. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude shed 97 cents to settle $43.23, its lowest level since September last year.
Futures tip the Nikkei 225 to open lower. Nikkei futures in Chicago were down by 0.22 percent at 20,185 and futures in Osaka declined 0.45 percent to trade at 20,140. The benchmark index closed at 20,230.41 in the previous session.
Australian SPI futures were 1.57 percent lower at 5,667 against the S&P/ASX 200’s Tuesday close of 5,757.253.
Major indexes on Wall Street closed lower as energy stocks were pressured by the fall in oil. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 0.29 percent or 61.85 points to close at 21,467.14, the S&P 500 shed 0.67 percent or 16.43 points to end at 2,437.03 and the Nasdaq fell 0.82 percent or 50.98 points to finish the session at 6,188.03.
The dollar traded close to a five-week high against a basket of rival currencies at 97.760 at 6.45 a.m. HK/SIN. Against the yen, the dollar traded at 111.39, off a high of 111.50 seen earlier.
The Australian dollar was softer at $0.7578, lower than levels around the $0.76 handle seen earlier this week.
Pound sterling fell to a two-month low overnight after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said the central bank would not be raising interest rates anytime soon due to uncertainty surrounding Brexit. The British pound, which traded as low as $1.2617 overnight, last traded at $1.2629.
The economic calendar for Wednesday is fairly light, with the Bank of Japan due to release minutes of its June meeting at 7:50 a.m. SIN/HK. In Australia, Westpac’s leading economic index is expected at 8:30 a.m.
— CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.