SYDNEY, NSW, Australia - Stocks in Asia mostly traded well into the red on Wednesday.

The continuing uncertainty of China Evergrande, disappointing consumer confidence data in the U.S., and rising bond yields contributed to the gloom overshadowing Asian markets, which have been caught up in a global stocks rout.

Evergrande was due to pay $49.5 million in interest on one of its bonds on Wednesday.

"We are in the wait and see phase at the moment. The creditors are organising themselves and people are trying to figure out how this falling knife might be caught," an advisor to one of the offshore Evergrande bondholders was quoted by Reuters as saying on Wednesday.

"They failed to pay last week, I think they will probably fail to pay this one. That doesn't mean necessarily they're not going to pay ... they've got the 30-day grace period," said the advisor.

The main action was in Japan where the recent rally there gave way to a major fall. The Nikkei 225 ended the day down 639.67 points or 2.12 percent at 29,544.29.

The Australian All Ordinaries was off 95.50 points or 1.26 percent at 7,485.60.

The U.S. dollar retained its recent-won gains during the Asian session. The euro continues to struggle below the crucial 1.17 level, last trading around the Sydney close at 1.1682.

China's Shanghai Composite dropped 65.92 points or 1.83 percent to 3,535.29.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong, going against the trend, climbed 163.11 points or.057 percent to 24,663.50.

On foreign exchange markets, the British pound was weak at 1.3546. The Japanese yen was seeing little demand at 111.48. The Swiss franc was soft at 0.9292.

The Canadian dollar was unchanged at 1.2679. The Australian dollar traded in a tight range around 0.7249. The New Zealand dollar was friendless at 0.6949.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Nasdaq Composite shed 423.29 points or 2.83 percent to 14,546.68, Big News Network.com reported.

The Dow Jones industrials got scalped 569.38 points or 1.63 percent, to close Tuesday at 34,299.99.

The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 90.48 points or 2.04 percent to 4,352.63.