Stocks in Asia Slip; Yuan Holds Gains: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) -- Stocks in Asia saw modest losses as investors weighed signs of improvement in U.S. economic data against conflicting news flow on Sino-American trade discussions. The yuan held Tuesday’s gain.

Stocks slipped in Tokyo, Shanghai and Sydney, edged higher in Seoul and were flat in Hong Kong. News that U.S. service industries grew more than forecast in October triggered a brief equity rally on Wall Street, but pushed market pricing for another rate cut from the Federal Reserve further out. The S&P 500 Index closed marginally lower. Ten-year Treasury yields retreated.

In the latest trade news, China is seeking a U.S. roll-back on tariffs before President Xi Jinping agrees to take the politically sensitive step of heading to the U.S. to ink a deal. China is reviewing locations in the U.S. where Xi would be willing to meet with President Donald Trump to sign a pact, people familiar with the plans said. Meantime, traders continued to wind down expectations for monetary easing in the U.S. as the latest read on non-manufacturing offered some comfort against a backdrop of fragile global economic growth.

“It seems like the worries in the manufacturing sector are not spilling over, at least to a critical degree, into the services sector,” Yelena Shulyatyeva, senior U.S. economist at Bloomberg Economics, told Bloomberg TV.

Elsewhere, oil retreated. Gold ticked higher following a more than 1.5% decline.

Here are some key events coming up this week:

• Earnings are due from companies including: SoftBank and BMW on Wednesday; Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS), Toyota, Deutsche Telekom (DE:DTEGn) on Thursday.
• Regional Federal Reserve presidents including Charles Evans, John Williams (NYSE:WMB) and Patrick Harker speak at events on Wednesday.
• A Bank of England monetary decision is due Thursday.
• The USDA World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates Report for November comes out Friday.

Stocks

• The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.2% as of 12:38 p.m. in Tokyo.
• Japan’s Topix index fell 0.3%.
• South Korea’s Kospi index added 0.1%.
• Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.2%.
• Hang Seng Index fell 0.1%.
• Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.2%.
• The S&P 500 dipped 0.1% on Tuesday. Futures were little changed.

• The yen rose 0.1% to 109.03 per dollar, after sliding 0.5%.
• The offshore yuan rose 0.1% to 6.9955 per dollar.
• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed.
• The euro bought $1.1074, little changed.

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• The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell 2 basis points to 1.84%.
• Australia’s 10-year yield added four basis points to 1.24%.

• West Texas Intermediate crude oil slid 0.5% to $56.98 a barrel.
• Gold rose 0.2% to $1,486 an ounce.