Asian shares stepped back on Tuesday

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.

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