In Asia today, the Hang Seng ended the morning down 73.59 points at 16,448.62, while the Nikkei was recently down 125.51 points at 15,123.81.
New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, was at $75.23 a barrel, up 28 cents from $74.95 in late US trade.
Early broker notes:
ASTRAZENECA CUT TO 'NEUTRAL' VS 'OVERWEIGHT' AT HSBC
IG GROUP UPGRADED TO 'BUY' VS 'NEUTRAL' AT MERRILL LYNCH
BT GROUP DOWNGRADED TO 'SELL' VS 'NEUTRAL' AT GOLDMAN SACHS