Asian stocks: China rebounds as broader indexes hesitate

• A mild rebound for China indexes fails to translate into positive action for neighboring bourses.
• Broader Asia is hesitant but holding relatively steady ahead of Thursday's potential tariff rout.

Asian stocks were largely flat for Tuesday, with emerging markets representing the largest drag on the broader Pacific-Asia region, while Chinese equities saw a mild rebound after the week's opening selloff.

The deadline for US President Donald Trump to impose another set of hefty trade tariffs on China is rapidly approaching, with the public comment period on $200 billion worth of tariffs wrapping up on Thursday. On the Asia side, manufacturing entities are beginning to feel the squeeze of steadily-contracting expectations for global economic growth in the mid-term: as the global outlook continues to grow increasingly negative, companies throughout Asia and Europe are beginning to see a self-fulfilling cycle unfold of declining activity.

In Japan, the Tokyo Topix index is flat at a mild -0.09%, with the Nikkei 225 index at a comparative -0.06%; the Australia ASX 200 is slightly uneasy, down -0.32% for Tuesday, while the MSCI broad Asia-Pacific index is showing its weak underbelly, in the red by -0.76%; hopeful stock action is seen in China, where Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is up 0.42%, while Shanghai's CSI 300 index is in the green by 0.64%.

Nikkei 225 levels

Japan's leading Nikkei 225 index is testing near 22,695.00 to cap off Tuesday's trading, largely unchanged from the previous day but bulls are determined to keep the bourse raised into recent highs near the critical 23,000.00 handle; failure to maintain a bullish push will quickly see the index falling into recent swing lows near 21,800.00, with the floor underneath current action seen at July's early bottom just below 21,500.00.