Asian stocks, US stock price futures negatively by growth concerns
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian stocks and US stock price futures slipped on Tuesday as pessimism about world growth drove investors away from risky assets, while sterling dithered as the last plan for Brexit seemed to come and go without progress.
FILE PHOTO: A woman goes in strong winds caused by Typhoon Lan, past an electronic map showing graphs of the latest movements of Japan's Nikkei average outside a broker in Tokyo, Japan, October 23, 2017. REUTERS / Issei Kato [19659003] MSCI's widest index for Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan. MIAPJ0000PUS dropped 0.5 percent, drifting away from a last seven week peak.
Losses were led by Chinese stocks, with the blue chip index .CSI300 of 0.6 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index. HSI was down 0.4 percent and Australia's largest stock index failed 0.5 percent.
Japan's Nikkei .N225, which had become stuck, was flat. US stock markets, which give an indication of how Wall Street opens, were around 0.5 percent.
US .. The markets were closed on Monday for a holiday, so trading in general was dampened overnight. However, stock prices in Europe and Latin America were hit after data showed a decline in growth in China, the world's second largest economy.
By putting caution and uncertainty in the air, the International Monetary Fund trimmed its global growth forecasts, and a survey showed increased pessimism among business leaders as trading tensions believed.
The gloomy IMF forecasts, published across the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, highlighted the challenges political decision-makers face when dealing with a number of current or potential crises, from the US-China trade crisis to Brexit.
"This is now the second IMF downgrade," ANZ analysts said in a note.
"And while there have been some positive developments over the past few weeks, the risk is still skewed towards weaker growth, with a" no deal "Brexit and sharper than expected slowdown in China getting special denominations."
"Between ongoing negotiations between the US and China and Britain's Brexit impasse, the market sentiment will still be dominated by short-term geopolitics," ANZ says.
In a sign of risk aversion, the Australian dollar was AUD = D3, often used as a liquidity ombudsman for investment in china, nudged down to $ 0.7155, which put it on track for a third trial of loss.
Sterling acted cautiously around $ 1,2887 as British Prime Minister Theresa May refused to exclude a non- Agreement Brexit There are few indications that she can break a death with Parliament after her Brexit deal was rejected last week
May offered to fine-tune her seized agreement by seeking further EU concessions on a reserve plan to avoid a hard border in Ireland.
"Any upside for sterling in the short term may be limited," says analyst Liam Peach Capital Economics. "Uncertainty would continue during the extended negotiations, and there is no guarantee that it would last for only a short time."
Analysts said investors were nervous about construction positions in the pound, especially given the possibility that the UK left the EU without an agreement.
The dollar JPY = held at 109.62 against the Japanese yen while the euro was near the floor in its last trading area of $ 1.1369 =. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was flat at 96,324. DXY.
In commodities, global growth hairs concern oil prices lower early on Tuesday with Brent LCOc1 down 14 cents at $ 62.60 and US crude futures CLc1 of 7 cents at $ 53.73.
Reporting Swati Pandey; Editing by Richard Pullin and Richard Borsuk
