ASIA STOCKS lower

Asian stocks fell on Wednesday on renewed concerns over U.S. military intervention in Syria weighed on sentiment.

Japan’s Nikkei was down 0.7%, Australia’s S&P ASX 200 fell 0.7% and South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.2%.

Although Wall Street gave a positive lead to Asia, reopening on Tuesday after the Labor Day public holiday, regional stocks retreated after the possibility of U.S. strike in Syria returned to the fore. U.S. indexes gave up much of their earlier gains on Tuesday House after Speaker John Boehner said that he supports President Barack Obama’s call for military action in Syria.

In addition, the Senate reached an agreement on a resolution authorizing military strikes against Syria. The resolution gives Obama 60 days to strike Syria, and is expected to be put to a vote on Wednesday.

In Sydney, banks and resource companies struggled as worries about the situation in Syria triggered risk aversion. Westpac Banking Corp. lost 0.7%, Commonwealth Bank of Australia fell 0.5% and BHP Billiton Ltd. fell 0.8%.

In Tokyo, investors were reacting to a range of company news.

Canon Inc. jumped 3.5% after the company said that it will buy back up to 18 million of its own shares, representing 1.6% of its outstanding shares. The company will spend up to ¥50 billion ($502 million) on the buyback.

Honda Motor Co. managed to outperform the broader market, down just 0.3%, after a Nikkei report said that it will likely increase its annual dividend for the year ending March on expectations of strong earnings.

Chinese stocks, which along with Japan marked strong gains earlier in the week, also made a sharp retreat on Wednesday, with the Hang Seng index down 0.6% and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index 0.8% lower.

The Shanghai Composite was up 0.1%.

A 2.4% decline in China Construction Bank Corp. stock weighed on Hong Kong, after Bank of America Corp. sold its remaining holdings in the lender for $1.5 billion.

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