By Chikako Mogi
TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian shares eased on Tuesday, under pressure from worries about a U.S. fiscal policy standoff and deepening uncertainty over the euro zone’s debt crisis as global lenders held back from giving further aid to debt-stricken Greece.
The euro remained on the defensive at $1.2705, hovering near a two-month low of $1.2690 touched on Friday. That in turn pinned the dollar near a two-month high of 81.10 hit on Monday against a basket of key currencies.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched down 0.1 percent, with Australian shares falling 0.3 percent.
Japan’s Nikkei average opened up 0.4 percent after six days of decline. South Korean shares also opened slightly higher.
“Investors will … be taking a wait-and-see attitude ahead of the political wrangle over the fiscal cliff,” said Chun Jong-kyu, an analyst at Samsung Securities.
Although worries about the U.S. fiscal cliff — nearly $600 billion worth of spending cuts and tax increases set to kick in early 2013 — are preoccupying markets, analysts also note that the effects of aggressive quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve may be showing up in recent economic data.
Data has suggested that growth in China, the world’s second-largest economy, may be picking up, with exports to China from South Korea and Taiwan growing in October, and that the United States is on a moderate recovery path.
Societe Generale analyst Sebastien Galy said the risk is not to overlook at a rapid divergence in economic indicators which show some countries are doing better than others.
Overnight, U.S. shares ended nearly flat in a light session while European shares ended lower.
Uncertainty over when Greece will get a crucial financial bailout kept markets nervous and boosted demand for safe-haven German bonds, which held near two-month highs on Monday.
Euro zone finance ministers gathered in Brussels did not agree to disburse more money to Greece on Monday, as expected. The euro zone and the International Monetary Fund clashed over a longer-term target date to shrink the country’s debt pile, but Greece’s international lenders agreed to give the country two more years to make the cuts demanded of it.
European Union officials said euro zone finance ministers will meet again on November 20 to discuss Greece.
U.S. crude futures fell 0.2 percent to $85.44 a barrel.
Oil slipped in choppy trading on Monday, as markets balanced concerns about U.S. fiscal problems against geopolitical tensions and strong oil demand in China.
(Additional reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul)
Source: Reuters
