Asian shares off five-week low, remain fragile on renewed U.S.-China trade worries

Asian shares staggered up from five-week lows on Tuesday but remained fragile after U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest threat to raise tariffs on Chinese goods shocked financial markets and fueled worries that trade talks may be derailed.

Asian Shares

Trump tweeted on Sunday that he would raise tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 percent from 10 percent by the end of the week, and would “soon” target the remaining Chinese imports with tariffs.

  • MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5 percent.
  • The benchmark Shanghai Composite advanced 0.6 percent.
  • The blue-chip CSI 300 climbed 1.0 percent.
  • Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.7 percent.
  • Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.8 percent.
  • U.S. stock futures for the S&P 500 declined as much as 0.8 percent.

Currency

A slim majority of economists polled by Reuters expects the central bank to keep rates at a record low although calls for a rate cut have grown louder after disappointingly weak first-quarter inflation.

  • The euro trading virtually flat at $1.1204.
  • The dollar was steady at 110.70 yen.
  • Onshore yuan rising 0.2 percent to 6.7727 per dollar.
  • The Australian dollar rose 0.2 percent to $0.6999.

Commodities

  • U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were marginally up at $62.27 per barrel.
  • Brent crude oil futures inched 0.1 percent lower at $71.14.

Source

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