Asian shares fall, smaller Fed rate cut, crude jumps

Asian shares fell on Monday since investors scaled back expectations of an aggressive interest rate cut.

Asian shares

MSCI’s broadest  index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.4%.

Japan’s Nikkei dropped 0.3%, domestic earnings for this season starts this week.

The Shanghai Composite Index was down 1.1% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.9%. South Korea’s KOSPI shed 0.1%.

Currency Markets

The dollar and U.S Treasury yield rose on the greater likelihood of a shallower rate cut.

The dollar index (DXY) against a basket of six major currencies was steady at 97.179 after climbing 0.4% on Friday.

The euro was traded at %1.1215 after shedding 0.5% on Friday.  The greenback gained 0.2% to 107.980 yen thanks to a rise in U.S. yields.

Bonds

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 2.056%.

“A factor which could guide stocks lower this week are tweets by U.S. President Donald Trump pertaining to trade issues with China,” said Junichi Ishikawa, senior forex strategist at IG Securities.

Oil Prices

In commodities, Brent crude futures were up 1.4% at $63.35 per barrel following a gain of about 0.9% on Friday.

U.S. crude futures advanced 0.95% to $56.15.

Spot gold traded at $1,427.94 an ounce after going as high as $1,452.60 on Friday, its strongest since May 2013.

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