MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
slipped 0.3% after six straight days of gains until Tuesday, that had taken it
within a stone's throw from the record high touched in November 2007.
Information
technology shares led the decline with a 1.1% fall as Samsung Electronics
extended losses. The tech company's profit guidance disappointed investors and
raised worries the memory chip boom may be coming to an end.
Japan's
Nikkei also shed 0.2%, slipping from 26-year highs hit the day before.
"The
rally has been a bit too fast. Investors are taking profits in high-flying
hi-tech shares. But the earnings and economic outlook in Asia remains
solid," said Yukino Yamada, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities.
Indeed,
expectations of solid corporate profit growth helped Wall Street's major
indexes extend the New Year rally to record levels for a sixth day on Tuesday.
"U.S.
fourth-quarter earnings are expected to rise more than 10 percent from the
previous year. The market has been supported by the consensus that the
goldilocks economy will continue while the Fed will raise interest rates only
slowly," said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui
Asset Management.
Profits for
S&P 500 companies are expected to rise 11.8% in the fourth quarter,
compared with an 8% increase a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters
I/B/E/S.
Some
investors said risk sentiment had been boosted by an apparent easing in
tensions in the Korean peninsula after North and South Korea agreed to future
talks in their first official dialogue in more than two years.
Washington
welcomed what it said was a first step to solving the North Korean nuclear
weapons crisis, even though Pyongyang said those were aimed only at the United
States and not up for discussion with Seoul.
In the
currency market, the yen maintained the gains it made the previous day after
the Bank of Japan trimmed the amount of its buying in long-dated bonds.
While the
move was in line with the BOJ's subtle reduction in its bond buying over the
past year, the so-called 'stealth tapering', the reaction highlighted how
sensitive markets are to a pullback in Japan's massive stimulus.
"I
don't think yesterday's operation is a hint of a policy change. But it highlighted
the fact that unwinding of central bank stimulus will be a main theme this
year. We could see more moves like this," said a currency trader at a U.S.
bank.
The euro
eased to US$1.1945, compared to US$1.2028 at the end of last week, due to
profit-taking following the common currency's big gains late last year.
The BOJ's
move also helped to raise the 10-year U.S. bond yield above its December high
to 2.555 percent, the highest since March last year, from 2.482% late on
Monday.
Oil prices
extended gains, with U.S. crude futures hitting a three-year high on a tight
supply balance due to OPEC-led production cuts and a sharper fall in U.S. crude
inventories.
The
American Petroleum Institute said late on Tuesday crude inventories fell by
11.2 million barrels in the week to Jan 5 to 416.6 million, far bigger than
analysts' expectations for a decrease of 3.9 million barrels.
U.S. West
Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude traded at US$63.49 a barrel, up 0.9% for the
day, after having risen as high as US$63.53 earlier.
Brent crude
rose 0.6% to US$69.22 per barrel, staying near its highest level since mid
2015.
Rising oil
prices could fan inflation down the road, which could be detrimental to some
countries that have been prone to high inflation.
Still,
China's December producer prices grew at their slowest pace in 13 months, as
the government's stepped-up war against winter smog dented factory demand for
raw materials.
The
producer price index (PPI) in December rose 4.9% from a year earlier, compared
with 5.8% in November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on
Wednesday.
KLSE SGX FOREX COMEX BEST TRADING RECOMMENDATION AND SIGNAL FREE TRIAL AND ALSO SPECIAL BENEFITS OF SERVICES CLICK AND PROVIDE YOUR CONTACT AND TRADING INFORMATION
No comments:
Post a Comment