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Asian shares lose ground, Fed the usual suspect

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Reuters SYDNEY
Last Updated : Sep 24 2013 | 9:10 AM IST

By Wayne Cole

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian share markets were mostly under water on Tuesday while currencies dithered in recent ranges as a dearth of major economic news left investors to fret on the outlook for monetary policy in the United states and Europe.

Taking its cue from a softer Wall Street, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.9 percent. Shanghai shed 1.2 percent, and Seoul 0.7 percent.

Returning from holiday, Tokyo's Nikkei slipped 0.7 percent in light volume. The only bright spot was stocks in iPhone suppliers, burnished by news Apple Inc had sold 9 million new iPhones during their first three days in stores.

Lacking an obvious culprit, dealers tended to blame uncertainty about when the Federal Reserve will start trimming its asset buying following last week's shock decision to maintain the programme at $85 billion a month.

"I do think that there was a sense of complacency before, about the Fed being able to drive the market higher simply through doing whatever it was doing," said Damien Boey, equity strategist at Credit Suisse.

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"But, now there's been a reflection on that and the market's come off and I think that will continue."

Moves were modest in currencies. The euro idled at $1.3493, having slipped 0.2 percent on Monday. Both the euro and the dollar lost ground to the yen, which firmed to 98.76 per dollar.

The net result was to leave the dollar little changed against a basket of currencies at 80.465, and still uncomfortably close to a seven-month trough hit last week.

Economic data had been too mixed to offer much direction.

Markit's preliminary U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) unexpectedly retreated to 52.8 this month from 53.1 in August.

That contrasted with Markit's Eurozone PMI which jumped to 52.1 in September, from last month's 51.5, its highest since June 2011. It also followed a firmer-than-expected reading on China's manufacturing sector.

All of which had seen the Dow Jones industrial average end 0.32 percent lower on Monday, while the S&P 500 Index eased 0.47 percent.

Bonds fared better, with yields on 10-year Treasury debt down another basis point at 2.69 percent and 16 basis points lower since last week's Fed meeting.

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In truth, dealers conceded there was not much rhyme or reason behind the latest market moves.

The euro apparently dropped because European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said euro zone interest rates will remain at current or lower levels for an extended period. Yet, he has been saying the same thing for weeks with little obvious impact on the currency.

Wall Street's wobble was attributed in part on a comment by New York Fed President William Dudley that the timeline for tapering was still in place.

But Treasuries rallied because Dudley also said he wanted to see a broader improvement in the labour market before signing off on tapering, emphasising the need for policy to "forcefully" push back against economic headwinds.

Dudley is a close ally of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and is assumed to speak for the dovish majority of voters on the Open Market Committee, which gives his words weight with investors.

One of the headwinds cited was U.S. fiscal policy amid a political showdown in Washington that could see the government shut down, or at the very extreme, default on its debt.

The wrangling looks set to roll on for some weeks, providing a distraction to policy makers and investors alike.

In commodities markets, gold steadied at $1,326.16 an ounce after failing to sustain its Fed-inspired rally to $1,374 last week. The story was much the same in copper futures which held at $7,225.00, from last week's peak of $7,368.00.

Brent crude oil was down 12 cents at $108.04 a barrel, while U.S. crude eased 17 cents to $103.42.

(Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

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First Published: Sep 24 2013 | 9:01 AM IST

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