Asian markets mostly rose on Tuesday following a record close on Wall
Street but concerns about Greece's long-running debt reform talks
dragged the euro after a recent rally.
Another weak US indicator
further narrowed expectations the Federal Reserve will raise US interest
rates soon, with analysts now tipping the bank to wait until the final
quarter of the year.
Tokyo ticked up 0.63 percent, Shanghai added
0.86 percent and Seoul put on 0.22 percent, while Hong Kong was down
0.15 percent and Sydney was flat.
US investors pushed the Dow and S&P 500 to new records on Monday, thanks to a rally in Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) and multi-billion-dollar acquisitions in the pharma and apparel sectors.
The Dow rose 0.14 percent and the S&P 500 added 0.30 percent, while the Nasdaq jumped 0.60 percent.
The gains have also been helped by the lower expectations of a rate hike in the near future.
Disappointing
data on homebuilders' confidence was the latest to indicate weakness in
the world's top economy, following last week's soft retail sales,
consumer sentiment and industrial production figures.
"Patchy US
data means that the Fed is highly unlikely to begin its policy
normalisation process until late in the December quarter," Matthew
Sherwood, Sydney-based head of investment strategy at Perpetual Ltd.,
told Bloomberg News.
"There has been a large upward movement in
the dollar in the past 10 months and this has clearly weighed on US
growth. The Fed could not possibly be convinced that the economy is on
the right track until growth is above three percent for two consecutive
quarters."
The dollar continues to hold up, even though the chances of a rate hike have slimmed.
On
Tuesday morning in Asia it was at 119.95 yen early Tuesday, compared
with 119.97 yen in New York but up from 119.63 yen in Tokyo earlier
Monday.
The euro bought $1.1307 and 135.57 yen against $1.1315 and 135.75 yen in US trade.
The
single currency's losses come after a recent rally against the dollar
and yen despite Greece's ongoing woes and the European Central Bank's
bond-buying programme that essentially prints money.
Talks between
Athens and its creditors have so far been unable to reach an agreement
to overhaul the troubled country's bailout in a way that would release
billions of euros to help it service its debts.
There are fears that if it defaults on those loans Greece could tumble out of the eurozone.
Late
Monday Greece's To Vima daily reported a European Commission proposal
to break the deadlock by next month giving it a combined 3.7 billion
euros in bailout cash in return for fiscal reforms worth 5.0 billion
euros.
However, Athens nor the European Commission could not confirm that.
On
oil markets US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for June delivery
gained 16 cents to $59.59 while Brent crude for July rose one cent to
$66.28.
Gold fetched $1,224.48 from $1,230.00 late Monday.
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