Asia retreats from two-year highs
Asian stocks handed back earlier modest gains and drifted lower on Monday, running short of incentives to push past two-year highs with many key markets closed for holidays. The pound weakened after a poll showed a shrinking lead for UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s party in upcoming elections.
TOKYO — Asian stocks handed back earlier modest gains and drifted lower on Monday, running short of incentives to push past two-year highs with many key markets closed for holidays.
The pound, meanwhile, nursed losses after a poll showed a shrinking lead for Prime Minister Theresa May’s party in Britain’s upcoming elections.
MSCI’s broadest index of AsiaPacific shares outside Japan was down 0.20%. Taking cues after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq scraped to record closing highs, it had earlier risen towards a two-year peak marked on Thursday.
Japan’s Nikkei edged up 0.10% while weaker commodities pushed down Australian shares 0.50%. The closure of Chinese, British and US markets on Monday deprived investors of potential catalysts and kept overall trading subdued.
Brushing aside a North Korean missile launch, South Korea’s KOSPI initially touched an intraday record high before pulling back 0.10%. It was on track to snap a six-day winning streak.
Pyongyang fired what appeared to be a short- range ballistic missile early on Monday.
The dollar index against a basket of major currencies was steady at 97.465 after rising on Friday thanks to upbeat US gross domestic product data.
The index fell to a six- anda-half-month low below 97.00 a week ago on US political concerns centered on President Donald Trump, but have since crept back.
The dollar and US stocks would face downward risks if trouble for the Trump administration becomes a long-term concern, said Masafumi Yamamoto, chief forex strategist at Mizuho Securities.
“That said, the possibility of the president actually being impeached remains very low, and any negative pressure on US stocks has been limited so far.”
The greenback was steady at ¥ 111.290, with the safe- haven Japanese currency showing little reaction to North Korea’s missile launch.
“While the North Korean situation remains tense, the market has gotten used to missile launches, with broader volatility also declining,” said Shusuke Yamada, senior strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Tokyo.
“The US markets will also be shut today, and that is curbing incentive and restricting overall movements as well.”
The pound was a shade higher at $ 1.2828 after dropping more than 1% on Friday to as low as $1.2775.
Sterling suffered its steepest fall since January on Friday after an opinion poll showed the governing Conservatives’ lead over the Labor opposition down to just five percentage points with less than two weeks before a general election.
The euro declined 0.10% to $ 1.1165. The common currency had soared to a six- and- a- halfmonth high of $1.1268 last week on factors including relief at the French presidential election outcome, but it has failed to make further headway.
South Africa’s rand was turbulent after reports President Jacob Zuma defeated a no-confidence motion against him. The rand went to a two-month high of 12.65 per dollar before pulling back to 12.85.
Crude oil prices slipped, their modest recovery from disappointment over last week’s Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries ( OPEC) meeting sputtering out on the back of a relentless rise in US drilling.
Oil suffered a big drop last week after an OPEC-led decision to extend production curbs did not go as far as many investors had hoped.
US crude was down 0.20% at $49.63 a barrel, having slumped to as low as $ 48.18 on Friday, while Brent fell 0.30% to $49.63 a barrel.