By Chikako Mogi
TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares hit 2013 lows on Wednesday as uncertainty over when the Federal Reserve would begin trimming its massive stimulus program fanned worries about funds exiting the region, raising caution before key U.S. jobs data later this week.
"Wariness over an exit from the Fed stimulus is driving Asian shares lower on worries that the ample money invested here could flee, although an improving U.S. economy should be seen as positive for many export-reliant Asian economies," said Hirokazu Yuihama, a senior strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.
European stock markets will likely ease, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> would open down as much as 0.5 percent. A 0.2 percent drop in U.S. stock futures also pointed to a lower Wall Street open. <.l><.eu><.n/>
Comments on Tuesday from two Fed officials added to concerns the world's largest economy will be left with reduced Fed support at some point this year.
Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said there must be a practical limit to the Fed's balance sheet and the central bank cannot deliver quantitative easing "to infinity," while Kansas City Fed President Esther George said slowing the pace of bond buying would not mean tightening U.S. monetary policy and would help wean financial markets off dependence on ultra-easy money.
Markets have been buffeted by U.S. stimulus jitters since Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last month suggested the potential roll back of the massive bond-purchase program this year if the economy improves further. The Fed's quantitative easing has been a major source of support for global markets.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> slid as much as 1 percent to a six-month low, after snapping a four-day losing streak on Tuesday.
Australian shares <.axjo> shed 1.1 percent to a five-month low as slower-than-expected first quarter growth and weakening demand for metals in China weighed. Hong Kong <.hsi> shares slipped 1.2 percent to a six-week low and Shanghai shares <.ssec> edged down 0.4 percent.
"It's a little tricky at the moment. Nobody quite knows the timetable for the Fed's tapering, so high dividend names are not exactly popular right now, but neither are beta names," said Linus Yip, a strategist with First Shanghai Securities.
Markets showed subdued reaction to HSBC/Markit's purchasing managers' index for China's services industry, which expanded modestly in May from April.
Daiwa Securities' Yuihama said stability in Japanese equities would help calm Asian bourses, which had lately been taking their cue from Japan's highly volatile stock market.
Trading remained extremely choppy for Japanese stocks, with the benchmark Nikkei average <.n225> adding as much as 1.3 percent before beginning a tumble that left it off 3.9 percent for the day to a fresh seven-week lows. The Nikkei was now up 26 percent for the year, while two weeks ago, when it scaled a A 5-1/2-year peak, its gain for 2013 was 53 percent. <.t/>
Japanese stocks have been pulled down in recent sessions by anticipation of Fed tapering and as investors began to wind down their excessive expectations for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
What appeared to be speculative buying pushed the Nikkei to session highs and lifted the dollar up along to its day's peak, before a sharp retreat in the Nikkei sparked yen buying as Abe's speech on growth strategy offered no surprises, traders said.
Abe pledged to boost incomes by 3 percent annually and set up special economic zones to attract foreign businesses in the latest tranche of measures aimed at boosting growth in the world's third-biggest economy.
"Dollar/yen was completely swung around by the Nikkei, and the way the Nikkei gyrated seems to suggest that there are still those who have been hurt by recent volatility and incentives to sell into rises remain intact," said Hiroshi Maeba, head of FX trading Japan for UBS in Tokyo.
The dollar was down 0.4 percent against the yen at 99.65, after rising to the day's high of 100.47 and the session low of 99.55, approaching Monday's three-week low of 98.86. The dollar index <.dxy>, measured against a basket of six key currencies, was down 0.10 percent at 82.686, near Monday's three-week low of 82.428.
Amid deepening uncertainty over the course of U.S. monetary policy, investors have become even more cautious than usual before monthly nonfarm payrolls data due on Friday as the U.S. central bank has made an improving jobs situation a precondition for softening its strong stimulus measures.
"One of the biggest catalysts of uncertainty at the moment comes from traders trying to solve the conundrum of whether good news is good or bad and vice versa," Jonathan Sudaria, a trader at Capital Spreads, said in a note to clients. "Even after the data is released on Friday, it could be a while before the markets comes to a conclusion on how to discount it."
U.S. crude futures were up 0.3 percent at $93.57 a barrel while Brent was steady at $103.22.
(Additional reporting by Clement Tan in Hong Kong; Editing by Richard Borsuk)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-shares-hit-2013-lows-fed-stimulus-jitters-030125219.html
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