Asia shares hit 10-year highs

TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian stocks wobbled yesterday but still marked a 10-year peak, cheered by record highs on Wall Street, while shares of Apple Inc’s suppliers dipped following the release of the latest iPhone.

Futures suggested a downbeat start to the European trading day, with the euros down 0.1 percent, DAX futures also down 0.1 percent and FTSE futures 0.2 percent lower.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was slightly lower, after earlier poking up to its highest level since October 2007. Australian shares ended fractionally higher and South Korean shares rose 0.2 percent.

On Tuesday, the S&P Dow Jones industrials and Nasdaq Composite all finished at record levels as investors’ concerns faded about North Korean tensions as well as the impact of Hurricane Irma.

“In the US we had a bit of unwinding of the fear trade that it’s been going through and that’s flowing through to us as well,” said Mathan Somasundaram, a market portfolio strategist with Blue Ocean Equities in Sydney.

US gains were kept in check, however, by a decline in shares of Apple Inc. after it unveiled its newest line of iPhones. Apple fell 0.6 percent but pared some losses in afterhours trade.

The new iPhone’s sales will have repercussions beyond Apple for many suppliers as well as its rivals.

Taiwan’s benchmark dropped 0.7 percent, as shares of Apple supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s biggest contract chip maker, dipped 0.5 percent, while Hon Hai Precision Industry was 1.3 percent lower.