Asian stocks struggle as investors remain cautious ahead of key data/events

Asian markets remained sluggish during early Wednesday as global investors remained on sidelines ahead of the key data/events while recently erupted trade spat between the EU and the US provided initial damages.

MSCI’s widest gauge of Asia-Pacific shares ex-Japan slipped 0.1% from its eight-month peak whereas its global index for stock markets declined from six-month high.

Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.7% while China’s Shanghai Composite Index trimmed 0.4%. Further, Australia’s ASX was nearly flat but India’s Sensex was down 0.2% at the press time.

At the Wall Street, the US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose fresh tariffs on the EU products worth of $11 billion grabbed the spotlight on Tuesday whereas surprise dip in the US data further weakened the sentiment. Global growth forecast from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also was in focus as the lender cut its GDP prediction for the third time in the last six months to the lowest since 2009.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both lost nearly 0.6% whereas the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index slipped 0.7%.

Risk-off could also be witnessed through 10-year treasury yields of the US that are in negative around 2.49%.

Investors may now focus on the key EU summit that will decide whether and how long additional extension to its April 12 Brexit deadline can be availed to the UK. Also up in the radar will be the US-China trade talks and lawmakers of both the economies will discuss a trade during today. Furthermore, the US inflation, FOMC minutes and the ECB meeting are some extra data/events that will make traders busy.