Asian Shares Retreat As Yields Rise On Fed Jitters

(RTTNews) - Asian stocks traded lower on Tuesday after U.S. Treasury yields rose across the curve as a result of a heavy slate of corporate debt sales and a series of auctions beginning today.

The dollar was little changed and gold prices dipped after Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari told Wall Street Journal that he would err on the side of overtightening monetary policy rather than not doing enough to bring inflation down to the 2 percent target.

Oil prices were down around half a percent in Asian trade after settling modestly higher on Monday as Russia and Saudi Arabia announced they would continue with additional voluntary supply cuts.

China's Shanghai Composite index was down 0.4 percent ahead of trade data due out later in the day. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down almost 1 percent.

Japan's Nikkei average fell 0.7 percent after an overnight climb in U.S. Treasury yields.

South Korea's Kospi average was down 1.8 percent after rallying by the most in over three years on Monday as financial authorities re-imposed a ban on short selling.

Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.4 percent ahead of a rate decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Across the Tasman, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX-50 index was down half a percent. U.S. stocks eked out modest gains overnight after last week's strong rally on hopes the Fed is done with its monetary tightening.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite inched up 0.3 percent to notch seven days of gains for the first time since January while the Dow and the S&P 500 edged up 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent respectively to extend gains for a sixth day.

European stocks fell for the first time in five days on Monday ahead of a busy week of speeches by central bank officials.

The pan European STOXX 600 slipped 0.2 percent. The German DAX dropped 0.4 percent and France's CAC 40 shed half a percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 finished marginally higher.