Asia stocks muted; oil prices continue to climb from new 2019 highs

Stocks in Asia were tepid in Tuesday morning trade following an overnight session that saw a muted finish for shares on Wall Street.

The broad MSCI Asia ex-Japan index was largely flat at 541.38, as of 8:21 a.m. HK/SIN.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was 0.13% higher as shares of index heavyweight Fanuc jumped more than 2%. The Topix index, however, fell 0.12%.

South Korea's Kospi advanced 0.11% as shares of LG Chem rose more than 1%.

Over in Australia, the ASX 200 declined marginally as most sectors slipped. Crown Resorts shares surged about 21 percent in early trade on news that the Australian casino operator is in talks with Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts for a potential $7.1 billion buyout.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped by around 84 points to end its trading day at 26,341.02. The S&P 500 edged up approximately 0.1% to close at 2,895.77 and the Nasdaq Composite ended Monday 0.19% higher at around 7,953.88.

The moves followed a second consecutive week of gains for the three major stock indexes stateside. Trade talk progress between the United States and China and a strong March jobs report both boosted the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq through Friday's close.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 97.081 after declining from levels above 97.2 yesterday.

The Japanese yen traded at 111.48 against the dollar after touching highs around the 111.3 handle in the previous session, while the Australian dollar was at $0.7124 after bouncing from lows below $0.711 yesterday.

Oil prices scaled new 2019 highs on Monday, with the international benchmark Brent crude futures contract adding 1.1% to settle at $71.10 per barrel. U.S. crude futures also rose 2.1% to settle at $64.40 per barrel.

In the morning of Asian trading hours on Tuesday, crude prices continued to advance as Brent rose 0.1% to $71.17 per barrel and U.S. crude futures gained 0.23% to $64.55.

The moves in oil prices came amid a recent resurgence in conflict in Libya, a key oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

"The main feature of what has to be said are pretty soporific global financial markets at the start of the week and ahead of some key event risk(s) on Wednesday has been a further jump in oil prices," Ray Attrill, head of foreign exchange strategy at National Australia Bank, wrote in a morning note.

"Fear of fresh supply outages from Libya are said to be responsible as 'warlord' Khalifa Haftar moves his self-styled Libyan National Army forces towards the capital Tripoli, base of the UN recognised government of PM Fayez al-Sarraj," Attrill said, citing recent reports of air strikes on the Tripoli airport.

— CNBC's Fred Imbert and Reuters contributed to this report.

Correction: This article was updated to reflect that oil prices touched new 2019 highs on Monday.

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