Asian shares looked poised for gains on Tuesday, one day after regional markets declined over jitters related to economic uncertainty in Turkey. Ahead, a barrage of economic data out of China is expected later in the day.
Nikkei futures traded in Chicago were last up 1.04 percent compared to the benchmark’s last close after the yen gave up some gains in the overnight session. The Japanese currency traded at 110.73 to the dollar at 6:42 a.m. HK/SIN.
Australian SPI futures, meanwhile, were higher by 0.08 percent at the end of the previous session.
Wall Street slipped in the last session, with investor sentiment wobbly as a financial crisis in Turkey played out.
The Turkish lira, which slipped 20 percent on Friday, extended its losses to touch a new record low in the Monday session. At 6:55 a.m. HK/SIN, the currency traded at 6.9260, near Monday’s low, but had pared some of its recent losses after the Turkish central bank moved to calm market nerves.
“The efforts announced by the Turkish central bank to stabilize the TRY (Turkish lira) appear to have assisted. The TRY has not endured further depreciation in overnight trade, but it has not substantially declined either,” Richard Grace, chief currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in a morning note.
Tensions between the U.S. and Turkey increased last week after no progress was made on the detention of U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson, who is charged with supporting a group blamed for an attempted coup in 2016 against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.5 percent, or 125.44 points, to close at 25,187.70, logging its fourth straight finish in negative territory. The S&P 500 edged down by 0.4 percent to end at 2,821.93 and the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.25 percent to finish the day at 7,819.71.
In Asian corporate news, Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn on Monday reported second-quarter net profit came in at 14.49 billion Taiwan dollars ($567.25 million), Reuters reported. That was below an average estimate of T$21.94 billion in a Reuters poll.
In currencies, the dollar index, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of currencies, was mostly steady at 96.391.
Here’s the economic calendar for Tuesday (all times in HK/SIN):
- 9:30 a.m.: NAB Australia business confidence
- 10:00 a.m.: China fixed asset investment, industrial production and retail sales
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
