SYDNEY- Asian shares turned lower on Monday as relief over the benign US jobs report was chilled by caution ahead of key inflation data later this week, while a coronavirus outbreak in Taiwan took a toll on chip manufacturers.
Investors were wary on how shares of major tech firms would react to the G7’s agreement on a minimum global corporate tax rate of at least 15 percent, though getting the approval of the whole G20 could be a tall order.
So far, the reaction was muted with both Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures down 0.2 percent. EUROSTOXX 50 futures and FTSE futures eased 0.1 percent.
Also of interest will be the tussle over US President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.7 trillion infrastructure plan with the White House rejecting the latest Republican offer.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.3 percent and risked a fourth session of losses. Japan’s Nikkei edged up 0.2 percent and touched its highest in almost a month.
Taiwan stocks lost 1.7 percent as a spike in COVID-19 cases hit three tech companies in northern Taiwan, including chip packager King Yuan Electronics.
Chinese blue chips were off 0.3 percent ahead of data on exports and imports for May.
While the 559,000 rise in US payrolls missed forecasts it was still a major relief after April’s shockingly weak report, while the jobless rate at 5.8percent showed there was still a long way to go to reach the Fed’s goal of full employment.
“The data was perfect for a goldilocks type outlook for risk: not too hot to bring in fears of a faster Fed taper, and not too cold to worry about the outlook for the recovery,” said NatWest Markets strategist John Briggs.
“This caused a weaker USD, better stocks, reinforced the earlier bid in commodities, and boosted emerging markets.”
