Asian shares stepped back on Tuesday, weighed by U.S. growth concerns and as China cut its economic expansion target amid growing challenges from rising debt and a dispute over trade and technology with the United States.
Global shares
- MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.5 percent.
- Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.6 percent.
- Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.6 percent.
- Dow Jones Industrial Average shedding 0.79 percent.
- S&P 500 losing 0.39 percent.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping might seal a formal trade deal around March 27, given progress in talks between the two countries, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
Currency Market
- The euro fetched $1.1333, having dropped 0.25 percent on Monday.
- The dollar traded at 111.88 yen, near a 10-week high of 112.08 on Friday.
- The Australian dollar dipped 0.25 percent to $0.7072.
Commodities
Oil prices were little changed, hovering below their recently-hit three-month peaks.
- Brent futures were down 0.2 percent at $65.55 per barrel.
- US Crude futures stood at $56.41 per barrel, down 0.3 percent in early Asia but still up 1 percent on the week.
- Gold has fallen for four days in a row by Monday to as low as $1,283.10 per ounce.
- Silver hit two-month lows of $15.0725 per ounce.
Bonds
- The 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield dropped to 2.724 percent after touching from six-week highs of 2.768 percent in the past two sessions.
