From Nasdaq:

create short ,engaging summaries of the news. Limit summaries to 50 words or less per paragraph. Ensure clarity and engagement, Include all facts, figures and statistics mentioned in the news article. Arrange summaries sequentially or by relevance in easy to read paragraph format :

By Stella Qiu

SYDNEY, Jan 3 (Reuters) – Asian shares extended a global sell-off on Wednesday while the dollar held gains as market optimism about early and aggressive U.S. interest rate cuts ebbed ahead of the release of Fed minutes and jobs data.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 1.1% after a 1.0% drop the previous day in a sluggish start of the new year. Japan markets remain shut for a holiday.

South Korean shares .KS11 slid 1.8%, Australia’s resources heavy stocks .AXJO declined 1.1%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index .HSI fell 1%, driven by a 1.5% plunge in technology shares .HSTECH.

“While a one-day move cannot be simply extrapolated, there are reasons to be a tad concerned on the risk front at this early phase of 2024. Geo-political concerns have not abated, and in fact if anything are elevating.”

Indeed, tensions in the Middle East are ratcheting up. Israel on Tuesday killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, raising the potential risk of war in Gaza spreading well beyond the Palestinian enclave.

Denmark’s Maersk MAERSKb.CO and German rival Hapag-Lloyd HLAG.DEsaid on Tuesday their container ships would continue to avoid the Red Sea route.

Overnight, Wall Street’s euphoria about rate cuts prospects cooled a little as stocks retreated from record highs. The Nasdaq .IXIC slid 1.6% and the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.6%. .N

AppleAAPL.O fell nearly 3% to a seven-week low after Barclays downgraded its shares on demand concerns. Tesla TSLA.O shares ended flat after delivering a record number of electric vehicles in the fourth quarter, but the company lost its spot as the top EV maker to China’s BYD 002594.SZ.

Stocks were also pressured by a climb in Treasury yields in the new year. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield US10YT=RR briefly popped above 4% overnight, the first time in two weeks, but closed at 3.9406%, up 8 basis points for the day.

Cash Treasuries were not traded in Asia due to the holiday in Japan. 10-year Treasury futures TYc1 were mostly flat on Wednesday.

In the foreign exchange market, currencies mostly traded sideways in early Asia hours. The U.S. dollar =USD, which climbed 0.8% against its peers overnight to a two-week high, hovered at 102.15. FRX/

Bitcoin BTC=BTSP rose 0.5% to $45,205, not far from a 21-month top of $45,922 hit on Tuesday.

Oil prices were marginally higher after closing lower on Tuesday. U.S. crude futures CLc1 drifted 0.1% higher to $70.43 a barrel, after dropping more than 1% on Tuesday, while Brent LCOc1 was flat at $75.86 a barrel. O/R

Market focus is now on the Fed minutes for the December policy meeting due later in the day and a slew of data this week which could help justify its optimism of the aggressive policy easing that has been priced in. Futures have wagered on six rate cuts in 2024. FEDWATCH

The ISM survey on U.S. manufacturing is also due later on Wednesday, as well as job openings data, before a private payrolls report and jobless claims results on Thursday. The closely watched U.S. nonfarm payrolls report is due on Friday.

Spot gold XAU= was 0.1% higher at $2,060.18 an ounce.

Asia stock markets https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4

Asia-Pacific valuations https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dr2BQA

(Reporting by Stella Qiu. Editing by Sam Holmes.)

(([email protected]))

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Read more: GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian shares extend global sell-off, dollar holds gains