Asian shares drop as banks come under pressure, yen soars

Reuters: Asian shares extended losses to three-week lows on Friday, while the yen soared to a 17-month high against the dollar as investors bet Japan would be hard pressed to drive down its currency in the face of widespread foreign opposition.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.5%, heading for a weekly drop of 1.8%.

Japan’s Nikkei pared earlier losses to near-two-month lows to trade 0.6% lower, with financials under pressure. It’s on track for a decline of 3.1% for the week.

China’s Shanghai Composite index slid 0.9%, poised for a similar drop for the week. The CSI 300 was down 0.8%, set for a 1.2% weekly decline. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.7%, headed for 1.9% loss for the week.

Bank shares led losses in Europe and the U.S. markets on Thursday, amid talk of more layoffs and cutbacks planned by Europe’s major lenders as they struggle with zero rates.

The U.S. S&P 500 Index lost 1.2%, with financial shares falling 1.9%. In Europe, the FTSEurofirst 300 closed down 0.8%, hurt by a drop of more than 2% in financials.

“When bank shares are making big falls and their CDS spreads are rising like this, obviously you would think something is afoot. If they keep falling in today’s session, that is going to be really worrying,” said Daisuke Uno, chief strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Bank.

U.S. stock futures ESc1 slipped about 0.1% further in Asian trade after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, in a conversation with former Fed chairmen, said the U.S. economy is on a solid course and still on track to warrant further interest rate hikes.

Despite a chorus of comments from Fed policymakers about more rate hikes, many investors think the global economy is too weak to allow the Fed to raise rates all that fast.

The 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield fell to six-week low of 1.685 percent on Thursday, and was last trading at 1.7097. U.S. interest rate futures maintained their firmness, pricing in a less than 20% chance of a rate hike in June.

Lower yields undermined the dollar, given that prospects of higher U.S. yields were the main attraction behind the currency’s firmness.

Investors instead bought back the yen, which had been long under pressure due to the Bank of Japan’s massive monetary easing.

“Japan’s move towards negative rates, amid a general inability to create substantial nominal GDP and therefore inflation, is now resulting in a wave of JPY buying,” Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG in Melbourne, wrote in a note.

Traders believe it would be hard for Japanese authorities to intervene to stem the yen’s rise after the Group of 20 agreement in February warned countries to refrain from competitive devaluation.

Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Friday Japan will take necessary steps on currencies, but declined to comment on the issue of intervention.

The yen strengthened to 107.67 to the dollar on Thursday, its highest since October 2014, and last stood at 108.64, heading for a weekly gain of 2.6%.

The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six rival currencies, was up about 0.1% at 94.583, poised for a flat weekly performance.

The euro also hit a six-month high of $1.1454 the previous day and last fetched $1.1361, set to end the week up 0.2%.

On the other hand, commodity-linked currencies and many emerging economy currencies stepped back from recent multi-month highs as risk-averse mood took hold on investors.

The Australian dollar traded at $0.7533, having fallen 1.3% on Thursday.

In the commodities market, copper suffered its biggest fall in more than six months on Thursday, slumping 2.8% on the day and hitting a six-week low of $4,631 a ton.

China may be about to shock the global copper market by unleashing some of its stockpiles of the metal, which are near record highs, on to the global market.

The metal was last trading at $4,660 a ton.

Oil prices rose on Friday after firm economic indicators from the U.S. and Germany implied support for fuel demand, but analysts warned another downturn could be on the way due to ongoing oversupply.

Global benchmark Brent crude futures climbed 1.3% to $39.96 per barrel, set for an increase of 3.4% on the week. U.S. crude advanced 1.8% to $37.92, on track for a 3.1% weekly gain.