Asian shares step back from 2007 peak

TOKYO (Reuters): Asian shares flinched from testing their 2007 record peak on Wednesday, as investors booked profits in high-tech shares.

European shares are expected to dip slightly with Germany’s Dax futures down 0.2% and France’s Cac futures and Britain’s FTSE futures down 0.1%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.5% after six straight days of gains until Tuesday, that had taken it within a stone’s throw from the record high touched in November 2007.

Information technology shares led the decline with a 1.4% fall as Samsung Electronics extended losses. The tech company’s profit guidance disappointed investors and raised worries the memory chip boom may be coming to an end.

Japan’s Nikkei also shed 0.3%, slipping from 26-year highs hit the day before.

Wall Street’s major indexes extend the New Year rally to record levels for a sixth day on Tuesday.

Profits for S&P 500 companies are expected to rise 11.8% in the fourth quarter, compared with an 8-percent increase a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

In the currency market, the yen maintained the gains it made the previous day after the Bank of Japan trimmed the amount of its buying in long-dated bonds.

While the move was in line with the BOJ’s subtle reduction in its bond buying over the past year, the so-called ‘stealth tapering’, the reaction highlighted how sensitive markets are to a pullback in Japan’s massive stimulus. The Japanese government bond yield ticked up to 0.080%, the top of its range in the past several months. The euro eased to $1.1945, compared to $1.2028 at the end of last week, due to profit-taking following the common currency’s big gains late last year.