* Asian stock markets : https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
* Shanghai shares lead Asia lower on Sino-US trade unease
* Wagers on more dovish Fed talk keep yields, dollar down
* Gold extends gains as rates and dollar drop
By Wayne Cole
SYDNEY, June 25 (Reuters) - Asian shares were haunted by
trade anxiety Tuesday while the risk of more dovish talk from
the Federal Reserve pushed down Treasury yields and the dollar,
propelling gold to fresh six-year peaks.
Investors are waiting anxiously to see if anything comes of
Sino-U.S. trade talks later this week and sentiment was not
helped by reports U.S. President Donald Trump would be content
with "any outcome". Trump is slated to meet one-on-one with at least eight world
leaders at the G20 summit in Osaka, including China's President
Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Chinese investors seemed none too hopeful as Shanghai blue
chips .CSI300 slipped 1.8%. That led MSCI's broadest index of
Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS down 0.5%.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 lost 0.6%, while E-Mini futures for
the S&P 500 ESc1 edged down 0.3%. EUROSTOXX 50 futures
STXEc1 were off 0.2% ahead of the European open.
Wall Street had been just as cautious with the Dow .DJI
ending Monday up 0.03%, while the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.17% and
the Nasdaq .IXIC 0.32%.
There are no less than five Fed policy makers speaking on
Tuesday, including Chair Jerome Powell, and markets assume they
will stick with the recent dovish message.
"It's always possible the chair could walk back some of the
market's dovish interpretation of last week's FOMC meeting...but
we suspect he will reinforce the message laid out last week,"
said Kevin Cummins, a senior U.S. economist at NatWest Markets.
"By the end of July, we believe the Fed will have seen enough
to decide that action to counter downside economic risks and low
inflation/inflation expectations is warranted, and so we look
for a 25 basis point rate cut at the next FOMC meeting."
Markets are running well ahead of that. Futures 0#FF: are
fully priced for a quarter-point easing and imply around a
40%chance of a half-point move.
A total 100 basis points of cuts are implied by mid-2020, a
major reason two-year yields US2YT=RR are well under cash at
1.715%. FEDWATCH
GOLD SOARS
Yields on 10-year Treasuries US10YT=RR have dived 120
basis points since November and, at 1.99%, are almost back to
where they were before Trump was elected in late 2016.
The speed and scale of the latest decline has seen the
dollar fall for four sessions in a row against a basket of other
currencies to stand at a three-month low of 95.910 .DXY .
"USD DXY now looks likely to break through the March low of
95.76 and below there 95.0," said Tapas Strickland, a markets
strategist at NAB.
"The drivers here continue to be heightened expectations of
the Fed cutting rates - now 3.1 cuts priced by years' end," he
said, noting that a number of index trackers showed the data
flow from the United States was now showing more disappointing
misses than Europe.
The euro has climbed to its highest in three months and was
last holding firm at $1.1400 EUR= , within striking distance of
the March top of $1.1448.
Against the safe-harbour yen, the dollar hit its lowest
since the January flash crash at 106.79 JPY= . Dealers also
noted a report from Bloomberg that Trump had privately mused
about ending the postwar defense pact with Japan.
The pullback in the dollar combined with lower yields
globally has put a fire under gold, which touched a six-year
top. The metal is up 12% in the past month at $1,1434.51 an
ounce XAU= . GOL/
Oil prices lost some ground on Tuesday, after rising sharply
last week in reaction to tensions between the United States and
Iran. O/R
Brent crude LCOc1 futures eased 38 cents to $64.48, while
U.S. crude CLc1 fell 47 cents to $57.43 a barrel.
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Asia stock markets https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
Asia-Pacific valuations https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dr2BQA
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(Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore & Shri Navaratnam)