Image: Pedestrians walk past an electronic board displaying the Nikkei average outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan January 4, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
By Hideyuki Sano
TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian stocks stepped back from a record high on Wednesday as the region’s resource shares were hit by falling oil and commodity prices while digital currencies tumbled on worries about tighter regulations.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.15 percent from its record high as resource shares declined after oil and other commodities succumbed to profit-taking after recent gains.
Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.4 percent from its 26-year peak hit the previous day.
Wall Street paused its rally, hit by a 1.2 percent fall in energy stocks as well as weakness in General Electric. The U.S. conglomerate raised the prospect of breaking itself up and announced more than $11 billion in charges from its long-term care insurance portfolio and new U.S. tax laws.
Cboe volatility index, which measures investors’ expectation on price swings in U.S. shares, rose to a one-month closing high of 11.66 from near record low levels seen earlier this month.
World shares have rallied since the start of this year on prospects of strong global growth and improving earnings in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Indeed, MSCI’s broadest gauge of the world’s stock markets rose 0.3 percent to another record high on Tuesday, extending its gain so far this month to 4.2 percent.
“U.S. corporate earnings are beating estimates more than usual. People have been talking about ‘goldilocks economy’,” said Soichiro Monji, chief strategist at Daiwa SB Investments, adding market fundamentals remain solid. “Now they are starting to think a ‘red-hot’ economy may be a better description.”
In the currency market, the dollar was broadly weak, sticking near a three year low against a basket of currencies.
“As more countries in the world are starting to unwind their stimulus, the dollar’s yield advantage will shrink and prompt a correction in the dollar’s strength since 2014,” said Minori Uchida, chief FX analyst at Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi-UFJ.
The Bank of Canada is widely expected to raise its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.25 percent later in the day, with analysts expecting three hikes this year.
Investors also expect the European Central Bank’s eventual exit from stimulus as a major market theme for this year.
Three sources close to the ECB’s policy told Reuters that the ECB is unlikely to ditch a pledge to keep buying bonds at next week’s meeting just yet as rate setters need more time to assess the outlook for the economy and the euro.
Although the report briefly pushed down the euro on Tuesday, the currency scaled a three-year high of $1.2323
The ECB last week signaled a growing appetite for revising its policy message in “early” 2018, and specifically a promise to continue its 2.55 trillion euro money-printing program until inflation heads back to target
The dollar also hit a four-month low of 110.19 yen
Gold traded at $1,340.6 per ounce
On the other hand, digital currencies tumbled, with bitcoin falling to a six-week low of $10,162
“Cryptocurrencies could be capped in the current quarter ahead of G20 meeting in March, where policymakers could discuss tighter regulations,” said Shuhei Fujise, chief analyst at Alt Design.
Bitcoin traded at $10,968, down 3.7 percent in Asia, after a fall of 16.3 percent on Tuesday, its biggest daily decline in four months.
Oil prices pulled back from three-year highs as traders booked profits but healthy demand underpinned prices near $70 per barrel, a level not seen since the market slump in 2014.
Prices have been driven up by oil production curbs in OPEC nations and Russia, and demand amid healthy economic growth
U.S. crude futures
Global benchmark Brent crude futures
(Editing by Sam Holmes)
Copyright 2018 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.
