SYDNEY- Asian shares wobbled on Monday amid sharp losses in gold and oil prices, while the dollar reached four-month highs on the euro after an upbeat US jobs report lifted bond yields.
Sentiment was shaken by a sudden dive in gold as a break of $1,750 triggered stop loss sales to take it as low as $1,684 an ounce. It was last down 1.4 percent at $1,738.
Brent also sank 2 percent on concerns the spread of the Delta variant would temper travel demand.
Holidays in Tokyo and Singapore made for thin trading conditions, leaving MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.5 percent.
Japan’s Nikkei was shut but futures were trading 100 points below Friday’s close. Nasdaq futures slipped 0.4 percent and S&P 500 futures 0.3 percent.
Chinese trade data out over the weekend undershot forecasts, while figures out Monday showed inflation slowed to 1 percent in July offering no barrier to more policy stimulus. China’s blue chips index were a fraction firmer.
The US Senate came closer to passing a $1 trillion infrastructure package, though it still has to go through the House.
Investors were still assessing whether Friday’s strong US payrolls report would take the Federal Reserve a step nearer to winding back its stimulus.
“There is not a lot of disagreement on a taper announcement coming sometime between September-December followed by actual tapering sometime between November and January,” said Rodrigo Catril, a senior FX strategist at NAB.
