Asian stocks slumped following Wall Street lowers as investors contemplated a protracted period of higher interest rates. Benchmarks across the region declined, with stocks in Japan, Australia, and South Korea all falling.

The S&P 500 Index lost 1.5% and the Nasdaq 100 slumped 1.6% Tuesday as Wall Street’s fear gauge - the Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX - hit the highest since late May after U.S. consumer confidence fell to a four-month low. Contracts for U.S. equities edged higher in early Asian trading.

Tech giants, namely Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc., and Google-parent Alphabet Inc., dragged on the U.S. stock gauges, pushing the tech sector down more than 10% from a July peak due to the threat of tight policy.

Brent crude prices were trading above $93 a barrel, and WTI crude was above the $90 mark. The yield on the 10-year U.S. bond was trading at 4.52%, and Bitcoin was below the $27,000 level.

At 8:05 a.m., the GIFT Nifty, an early indicator of the Nifty 50 Index’s performance in India, was up 1 point, or 0.01%, at 19,733.5.

India's benchmark stock indices closed lower on Tuesday after opening marginally higher. The telecommunications and industrial sectors advanced, while shares of information and technology and banks were under pressure.

The S&P BSE Sensex closed 78.22 points, or 0.12%, lower at 65,945.47, while the NSE Nifty 50 was 9.85 points, or 0.05%, lower at 19,664.70.

Overseas investors remained net sellers of Indian equities for the sixth consecutive session. Foreign portfolio investors offloaded stocks worth Rs 693 crore, according to provisional data from the NSE. Domestic institutional investors remained net buyers and mopped up equities worth Rs 715 crore.

The Indian rupee weakened 9 paise to close at 83.24 against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday.