By Julie Zhu
HONG KONG (Reuters) – 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 was down 0.7%. The index is down 3.8% so far this month. U.S. stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, were up 0.27%.
Australian shares were up 0.25%, while Japan’s Nikkei stock index rose 0.5%.
China’s blue-chip CSI300 index was 0.4% lower in early trade. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index opened down 0.36%.
On Monday, U.S. 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 U.S. stock indexes lost ground after oscillating earlier in the session, with weakness in interest rate sensitive megacaps such as Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc providing the heaviest drag.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%, the S&P 500 lost 0.30% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.72%.
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.
U.S. crude ticked up 0.99% to $110.65 a barrel. Brent crude rose to $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 last reached 3.1847% on Tuesday, compared with its U.S. close of 3.194% on Monday. The two-year yield, which rises with traders’ expectations of higher Fed fund rates, touched 3.0974% compared with a U.S. close of 3.123%.
Also, the U.S. 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 was traded at $1,824.28 per ounce. [GOL/]
(Reporting by Julie Zhu)
