TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian shares and edged lower and U.S. stock futures darted in and out of losses on Tuesday, as the holiday lull offset optimism that a U.S.-China trade deal will boost exports and corporate earnings.
FILE PHOTO: Men walk past in front of an electric screen showing Japan’s Nikkei share average outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, August 5, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was down 0.14%.
Blue-chip shares in China .CSI300 rose 0.37% after Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday the government was considering more measures to lower corporate financing costs.
Australian shares rose 0.13%, while South Korean shares .KS11 fell 0.54%. Japan’s Nikkei .N225 nudged 0.04% higher.
Sterling traded near a four-week low versus the euro and a three-week trough against the dollar on growing doubts over how Britain will navigate the transition period for its exit from the European Union.
Oil prices held steady before data on U.S. crude inventories later on Tuesday, but there are signs that recent supply cuts may not last after Russia’s energy minister said oil producers could ease output restrictions in March.
Wall Street’s main indexes posted record closing highs on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump said an initial U.S.-China trade pact would be signed soon.
A de-escalation of a trade conflict between the world’s two-largest economies is a positive for companies that feed global supply chains, but some investors want to wait until next year to see how long the current thaw in Sino-U.S. relations lasts.
“Risks to the outlook receded this year, which supported financial markets, but we cannot say the same thing about next year,” said Hiroshi Miyazaki, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities in Tokyo.
“No one can predict what will happen with U.S.-China relations, and the U.S. still has some tariffs on Chinese goods in place.”
Trading is expected to be subdued as many financial markets will start closing from Tuesday for the Christmas holidays.
U.S. stock futures ESc1 rose 0.04% after the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.09% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 0.34% on Monday.
Shares of Boeing Co (BA.N) gave the Dow a boost after the planemaker ousted its chief executive officer over a prolonged crisis following two fatal crashes of its best-selling 737 MAX jetliner.
Equity investors got a rare double dose of positive news earlier this month when Washington and Beijing agreed a preliminary deal to avoid additional U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods and a British general election gave the ruling Conservative Party a free hand to enact its Brexit agenda.
However, currency markets shows some investors remain circumspect, because new problems with trade friction and Brexit could easily emerge next year.
Against the euro, sterling EURGBP=D3 was quoted at 85.66 pence, close to its lowest since Nov. 22. The pound GBP=D3 traded at $1.2946, close to its lowest since Dec. 2.
Sterling has given up all the gains it made immediately after the British general election on Dec. 12.
Spot gold XAU= rose 0.3% to $1,490.30 per ounce. Earlier in the day, prices hit their highest since Nov. 7, in another sign that some investors remain wary of risk.
In the onshore market, China’s yuan CNY=CFXS reversed early losses to trade at 7.0115 per dollar.
China’s government is considering broad-based and “targeted” cuts in banks’ reserve requirement ratio to lower financing costs for small firms, the country’s premier said on Monday, showing policymakers remain under pressure to counter an economic slowdown.
U.S. crude CLc1 ticked up 0.12% to $60.61 a barrel, and Brent crude LCOc1 rose 0.24% to $66.55 per barrel.
OPEC and other leading oil producers may consider easing oil output restrictions at their meeting in March, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview aired on Monday.
Graphic: Asian stock markets here
Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Lincoln Feast.