HONG KONG, June 28 — Asian shares edge down in early trade on Tuesday with investors taking their cue from a volatile Wall Street session overnight, while oil prices climbed following last week’s rout.
Oil continued to rise with investors still weighing worries over an economic slowdown against concern over lost Russian supply amid sanctions related to the conflict in Ukraine.
“A seam of tight supply news bolstered the (oil) market,” analysts at Commonwealth Bank of Australia said in a research note. “Political unrest might curtail supply from a couple of second-tier producers, Ecuador and Libya. And then there’s the G7’s proposed price cap on Russian oil.” Early in the Asian trading day, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was down 0.7 per cent. The index is down 3.8 per cent so far this month. US stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis ESc1, were up 0.27 per cent.
Australian shares .AXJO were up 0.25 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei stock index .N225 rose 0.5 per cent.
China’s blue-chip CSI300 index .CSI300 was 0.4 per cent lower in early trade. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index .HSI opened down 0.36 per cent.
On Monday, US stocks ended a volatile trading session slightly lower with few catalysts to sway investor sentiment as they approach the half-way point of a year in which the equity markets have been slammed by heightened inflation worries and tightening Fed policy.
The major US stock indexes lost ground after oscillating earlier in the session, with weakness in interest rate sensitive megacaps such as Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O, Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O providing the heaviest drag.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 0.2 per cent, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.30 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 0.72 per cent.
Oil prices rose as the Group of Seven nations promised to tighten the squeeze on Russia’s finances with new sanctions that include a plan to cap the price of Russian oil.
US crude CLc1 ticked up 0.99 per cent to US$110.65 a barrel. Brent crude LCOc1 rose to US$116.22 per barrel.
Treasury yields climbed on Monday following capital and durable goods orders data and as pending home sales surprised to the upside from the previous month.
The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR last reached 3.1847 per cent on Tuesday, compared with its US close of 3.194 per cent on Monday. The two-year yield US2YT=RR, which rises with traders’ expectations of higher Fed fund rates, touched 3.0974 per cent compared with a US close of 3.123 per cent.
Also, the US dollar edged lower versus major rivals as investors weighed expectations on inflation and interest rate hikes. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies of other major trading partners, was down at 103.91.
Gold was slightly higher. Spot gold XAU= was traded at US$1,824.28 per ounce. — Reuters
