Asian shares dip as investors anticipate tariff deadline

Asian shares dip as investors anticipate tariff deadline

Asian equity markets dipped lowed on Tuesday as investors kept from making major decisions before December 15, when the next round of U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports was due to take effect.

A Chinese Commerce Ministry official said on Monday that Beijing hopes to make a trade deal with Washington as soon as possible before fresh U.S. tariffs would transpire this weekend.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan went down 0.4% as the Asian trading day began on Tuesday.

Australian shares were also 0.04% lower, while Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.23%

“The decision whether or not to raise tariffs on December 15 rests with President Trump and he has continued his constructive ambiguity on the issue which is keeping markets guessing,” said Tapas Strickland, a director of economics and markets at National Australia Bank.

Tepid trade showed signs of weakening on Wall Street overnight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.38% to 27,909.6, the S&P 500 lost 0.32% to 3,135.96 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.4% to 8,621.83.