Stocks fall, dollar supported as trade woes in spotlight – Reuters

Stock markets in Asia tracked their global peers lower while the safe-haven dollar hovered near a two-week high on Wednesday as heightened worries over international trade conflicts curbed investor appetite for riskier assets.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was down 0.5 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC retreated 0.4 percent. Australian stocks lost 0.75 percent, South Korea’s KOSPI .KS11 dropped 0.1 percent and Japan’s Nikkei .N225 shed 0.35 percent. U.S. stocks had slipped on Tuesday as a drop in heavyweights Facebook (FB.O) and Nike (NKE.N) added to worries over trade negotiations between the United States and other major economies.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed about 0.5 percent the previous day. Emerging markets stocks and currencies faced their latest round of pressure with news that South Africa had slipped into recession and concerns brewing about inflation in Turkey. Argentina’s peso finished the day down over 2 percent on Tuesday.

The greenback extended its overnight rise against the yen to touch a near one-week high of 111.71 yen.The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six currencies, was a touch lower at 95.360 but in close reach of a two-week high of 95.737 set on Tuesday. The euro was 0.15 percent higher at $1.1599 EUR= following a loss of 0.35 percent on Tuesday.

Crude oil prices dipped, weighed by a stronger dollar which tends to burden non-U.S. buyers of dollar-denominated commodities. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down 0.2 percent at $78.03 per barrel after brushing a three-month peak of $79.72 on Tuesday. U.S. crude futures CLc1 were down 0.6 percent at $69.46 per barrel.