Comments
Asian shares and the dollar edged down in Asian trade on Thursday, with investors on ice ahead of a meeting of the European Union leaders later in the session as Greece continued last-minute efforts to avert a default.
Athens’ talks with creditors bogged down on details, with next week’s deadline to repay €1.6 billion ($1.79 billion) to the International Monetary Fund looming, and threatening to trigger Greece’s removal from the euro zone.
The EU leaders are scheduled to convene in Brussels later on Thursday.
“Expect more conflicting reports today, some positive and some negative. We have no idea how this will end,’’ Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a note to clients.
Asia-Pacific shares
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was a few ticks lower but holding close to the previous session’s close.
Japan's Nikkei stock index fell about 0.3 per cent after hopes for a resolution to Greece’s debt crisis had helped propel it on Wednesday to its highest level since 1996.
Pacific Rim trade pact
The Nikkei pulled off its session lows, underpinned by news that the US Senate passed a legislation that would help President Barack Obama seal the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact.
Japan would be the second-largest economy in the scheme, and investors hope its passage would life a broad range of Japanese companies.
Wall Street logged losses overnight, but US stock futures edged up about 0.2 per cent in Asian trade.
Dollar index
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was down about 0.1 per cent at 95.163.
The euro inched up on the day to $1.1218, while the dollar slipped about 0.2 per cent in the day against the yen to 123.61.
“Euro/dollar responded less compared to dollar/yen as underlying optimism that a deal will be sealed by the month’s remains intact amid pessimism over the talks breaking down,’’ said Junichi Ishikawa, market analyst at IG Securities in Tokyo.
US GDP data
Wednesday’s US gross domestic product data revealed that the final figure for the first quarter was a 0.2 per cent contraction, a good smaller than the previously estimated 0.7 percent. That reinforced expectations that the US Federal Reserve is on track to raise interest rates this year, perhaps as early as September.
Crude oil, gold
In commodities trading, US crude was nearly flat in early Asian trade at $60.28 a barrel after plunging more than 1 per cent on Wednesday on a government report showing that an eighth straight weekly drop in US crude stockpiles was offset by a large build-up in refined products. Brent crude rose about 0.3 per cent to $63.68.
Spot gold rose about 0.2 per cent to $1,177.22 an ounce after sliding for the past four sessions to a two-week low. ($1 = 0.8917 euros).
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.