Asian Shares Wobble on Greek Woes, Euro Pressured

Tokyo: Asian shares edged down on Tuesday as worries over Greece's fiscal woes took some of the shine off Wall Street's record close, helping steer the dollar higher and undermining the euro.

Fears of a Greek bankruptcy persisted even as the country's finance minister said on Monday that it was close to a deal with its lenders that would help it meet debt repayments next month.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was off 0.1 per cent in early trade. Japan's Nikkei stock index rose 0.5 per cent.

Both the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 closed at record highs, the third straight for the latter, after lacklustre economic data raised hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve would hold off raising interest rates.

The National Association of Home Builders said its index of members' sentiment fell to 54 points in May from 56 in April, short of a forecast increase to 57 among economists polled by Reuters.

Some investors were wary of which scenario to fear most: The Federal Open Market Committee tightening monetary policy, or the U.S. economy deteriorating to the point where a rate hike was indefinitely delayed.

"The FOMC's biggest worry is not lift off and its market and economic implications, but what happens if the economic recovery dies of old age without the Fed having done anything to tighten," Steven Englander, global head of G10 FX strategy at CitiFX in New York, said in a note to clients.

"Right now the rates market builds in very gradual policy rate normalization, with increasing uncertainty about the date of lift off," he said.

U.S. Treasuries sank as stocks gained, and higher yields underpinned the dollar. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasuries notes rose to 2.233 per cent from its U.S. close on Monday of 2.228 per cent.

The euro, which jumped to nearly four-month highs against the dollar last week, skidded more than 1 per cent on Monday. It was last slightly higher on the day at $1.1320.

The dollar was steady on the day against its Japanese counterpart at 119.94 yen.

U.S. crude futures edged up after slipping on Monday on the stronger dollar and oversupply concerns triggered by Saudi Arabia's report of its highest exports in nearly a decade. U.S. crude added about 0.1 per cent in Asian trade to $59.51 a barrel.

Spot gold was steady at $1,224.26 an ounce after it scaled a three-month high on Monday, rising for a fifth session as a spate of disappointing U.S. economic data quashed expectations that the Fed would hike interest rates anytime soon.