Asian shares pared gains on Wednesday, led by losses in Chinese stocks, after Beijing vowed retaliatory sanctions against the United States, while the euro rose to a four-month high on the prospect of stimulus ahead of a crucial EU summit.
Asian Shares
- MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was last up 0.14%, after rising over 1% earlier in the session.
- Chinese shares were deep in red, with the blue-chip CSI300 index off 1%.
- Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index down 0.6%.
- Japan’s Nikkei and Australia’s benchmark index remained upbeat though, and were up 1.4% and 1%, respectively.
- E-mini futures for the S&P 500 gave back some of their gains but were still up 0.7%.
Currency Markets
- The euro went as high as $1.1423, its strongest since March 10 and not far off its peak so far this year of $1.1495. It was last at $1.1395.
- The yen was little moved at 107.27 per dollar, off a two-week high of 106.635 ahead of the Bank of Japan’s policy announcement later in the day where it is expected to keep monetary policy steady.
- The risk-sensitive Australian dollar, too, pared gains to be last up 0.2% at $0.6990.
Commodities
- Spot gold rose to $1,809 an ounce.
- Oil prices rose on Wednesday after a sharp drop in US crude inventories.
- Brent crude futures were up 24 cents at $43.14 a barrel, and US crude futures rose 22 cents to $40.50 a barrel.
