Japan's Nikkei 225 and South Korea's KOSPI opened more than 1% lower.

Foreign central banks' holdings of US Treasuries fell $10.67bn in the week to Aug. 14, versus a $34.26bn decline in the prior week.

On an Aug. 20 investor call, International Composite Materials said its second‑generation low‑dielectric LDK product has entered the supply chains of several leading domestic and overseas copper‑clad laminate manufacturers and is in stable commercial supply. Its low‑expansion LCTE product is in small‑batch supply and capacity expansion is being advanced in an orderly manner. Q‑cloth remains in R&D; the company aims to complete pilot construction and commissioning within 2026. Specialty electronic cloth already represents a material share of electronic‑cloth revenue. The firm said it will continue to refine high‑end products and steadily push capacity builds and client onboarding to expand its high‑end electronic materials business.