Asian shares, yuan on shaky ground on China-US trade war spectrum – Business News

TOKYO: Asian stocks were on shaky ground on Wednesday while the Chinese yuan stood near 11-month lows as the specter of a Sino-U.S. haulted investors ahead of an end-of-week deadline for US tariffs on trillions of dollars worth of Chinese imports.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1 percent in early trade, a day after it hit a nine-month low. Japan's Nikkei lost 0.5 percent.

Wall Street dropped on Tuesday, giving up early gains in a truncated session ahead of the Independence Day holiday on Wednesday,

The S & P 500 lost 0.49 percent while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.86 percent.

Facebook lost 2.3 percent after the Washington Post.

Micron Technology Inc. fell 5.5 percent after its rival firm, Taiwan-based competitor United Microelectronics Corp. 2303.TW, said it received a temporary injunction banning chip sales in mainland China.

Coming on the heels of escalating tensions between the United States and China over tariffs and investment restrictions, the injunction sparked selling in ther U.S. chipmakers.

"We have the issue of Micron just when they lose their performance. "Nobuhiko Kuramochi, chief strategist at Mizuho Securities."

The news hit chip-related shares in Japan. "SMC Corp.," said Nobuhiko Kuramochi, chief strategist at Mizuho Securities. manufacturer of machines used for chip-making, fell 6.5 percent while Advantest, maker of chip inspection machines, fell 5.6 percent.

6, which Beijing has vowed to match with tariffs on US products, raising the risk of a full-blown trade war.

In the currency market, the yuan remained under pressure.

The Chinese currency fetched 6.6715 per dollar in early Asian trade, off Tuesday's 11-month low of 6.7344 after China's central bank moved to calm jittery financial markets.

The People's Bank of China Yi Gang Governor said in a statement on Tuesday that the central bank was closely watching

The Thomson Reuters / HKEX Global CNH index, which tracks the offshore yuan against a basket of currencies on a daily basis, has lost more than 3 percent in the past two weeks.

On the other hand, the Mexican peso surged 2.6 percent, its biggest one-day gain in more than two years

The euro was little changed at $ 1.1658, keeping gains after Germany's coalition settled Chancellor Chancellor Angela Merkel's government.

The dollar changed hands at 110.56 yen.

Oil prices were supported as larger-than-expected in US stockpiles ata from the American Petroleum Institute (19659002) U.S. light crude futures traded up 0.6 percent at $ 74.62 per barrel, after rising above $ 75.77

Copper, on the other hand, hit nine-month lows on Tuesday on worries frictions could slow down global growth. It last traded at $ 6,521, up 0.5 percent on the day but still low Tuesday of $ 6,490. – Reuters