* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
* Volumes in Asia low before holidays
* Trade deal lifted Wall Street to record closing high
* Hopes for monetary easing lifts China shares
* Oil steady ahead of API inventories report
By Stanley White
TOKYO, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Asian shares and edged lower and
U.S. stock futures darted in and out of losses on Tuesday, as
the holiday lull offset optimism that a U.S.-China trade deal
will boost exports and corporate earnings.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS was down 0.14%.
Blue-chip shares in China .CSI300 rose 0.37% after Premier
Li Keqiang said on Monday the government was considering more
measures to lower corporate financing costs.
Australian shares .AXJO rose 0.13%, while South Korean
shares .KS11 fell 0.54%. Japan's Nikkei .N225 nudged 0.04%
higher.
Sterling traded near a four-week low versus the euro and a
three-week trough against the dollar on growing doubts over how
Britain will navigate the transition period for its exit from
the European Union.
Oil prices held steady before data on U.S. crude inventories
later on Tuesday, but there are signs that recent supply cuts
may not last after Russia's energy minister said oil producers
could ease output restrictions in March.
Wall Street's main indexes posted record closing highs on
Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump said an initial
U.S.-China trade pact would be signed soon.
A de-escalation of a trade conflict between the world's
two-largest economies is a positive for companies that feed
global supply chains, but some investors want to wait until next
year to see how long the current thaw in Sino-U.S. relations
lasts.
"Risks to the outlook receded this year, which supported
financial markets, but we cannot say the same thing about next
year," said Hiroshi Miyazaki, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ
Morgan Stanley Securities in Tokyo.
"No one can predict what will happen with U.S.-China
relations, and the U.S. still has some tariffs on Chinese goods
in place."
Trading is expected to be subdued as many financial markets
will start closing from Tuesday for the Christmas holidays.
U.S. stock futures ESc1 rose 0.04% after the S&P 500
.SPX gained 0.09% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
rose 0.34% on Monday.
Shares of Boeing Co BA.N gave the Dow a boost after the
planemaker ousted its chief executive officer over a prolonged
crisis following two fatal crashes of its best-selling 737 MAX
jetliner. Equity investors got a rare double dose of positive news
earlier this month when Washington and Beijing agreed a
preliminary deal to avoid additional U.S. tariffs on Chinese
goods and a British general election gave the ruling
Conservative Party a free hand to enact its Brexit agenda.
However, currency markets shows some investors remain
circumspect, because new problems with trade friction and Brexit
could easily emerge next year.
Against the euro, sterling EURGBP=D3 was quoted at 85.66
pence, close to its lowest since Nov. 22. The pound GBP=D3
traded at $1.2946, close to its lowest since Dec. 2.
Sterling has given up all the gains it made immediately
after the British general election on Dec. 12.
Spot gold XAU= rose 0.3% to $1,490.30 per ounce. Earlier
in the day, prices hit their highest since Nov. 7, in another
sign that some investors remain wary of risk.
In the onshore market, China's yuan CNY=CFXS reversed
early losses to trade at 7.0115 per dollar.
China's government is considering broad-based and "targeted"
cuts in banks' reserve requirement ratio to lower financing
costs for small firms, the country's premier said on Monday,
showing policymakers remain under pressure to counter an
economic slowdown. U.S. crude CLc1 ticked up 0.12% to $60.61 a barrel, and
Brent crude LCOc1 rose 0.24% to $66.55 per barrel.
OPEC and other leading oil producers may consider easing
oil output restrictions at their meeting in March, Russian
Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview aired on
Monday. (Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Lincoln Feast.)