In Asia today, the Hang Seng ended the morning down 54.72 points at 17,033.67, while the Nikkei was recently down 193.41 points at 15,969.62.
New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, had fallen 3 cents to $71.73 a barrel from its close of $71.76 in the US overnight, where it had dropped $1.34.
Early broker notes:
MINERVA UPGRADED TO 'BUY' VS 'NEUTRAL' AT MERRILL LYNCH
CARPHONE WAREHOUSE UPGRADED TO 'OVERWEIGHT' VS 'EQUAL-WEIGHT' AT MORGAN STANLEY