Asian stocks fell last Tuesday as the lift from an agreement that saved the North American free trade deal faded, with cautious views on the global economy curbing risk sentiment.
In commodities, U.S. crude futures were up 0.4 per cent at 75.60 dollars a barrel.
Crude contracts surged nearly three per cent to 75.77 dollars a barrel last Monday, their highest since November 2014, as the deal to salvage NAFTA stoked economic growth expectations, with impending U.S. sanctions on Iran seen raising prices.
Brent crude edged up 0.1 per cent to 85.07 dollars a barrel.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.3 per cent after a steady start.
Australian stocks lost 0.7 per cent and South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.9 per cent.
Bucking the overall trend, Japan’s Nikkei added 0.1 per cent, after rising as much as 0.8 per cent to a new 27-year intra-day high of 24,448.07.
Spreadbetters expected a weaker tone in European equities, forecasting a lower open for Britain’s FTSE, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC.
China’s financial markets are closed for the week of October 1-5 for national holidays.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which did not trade last Monday due to a holiday, dropped 1.9 per cent in reaction to signs of weakness in the Chinese manufacturing sector shown in purchasing managers’ index (PMI) numbers released last Sunday.
“While news that the U.S. and Canada had struck a new NAFTA trade deal gave the S&P 500 a lift overnight, dark clouds are gathering,” strategists at OCBC Bank wrote in a note.
“With some signs of weakness in the European and Asian manufacturing PMIs Asian, markets may trade with a slightly more cautious tone,” they noted.
IHS Markit purchasing managers’ indices released on Monday showed manufacturing growth in the euro zone slowed to a two-year low at the end of the third quarter.
The United States and Canada forged a last-minute deal last Sunday to salvage NAFTA as a trilateral pact with Mexico, rescuing a 1.2 trillion dollars open-trade zone that had been about to collapse after nearly a quarter century in operation.
The Dow rose 0.73 per cent and the S&P 500 gained 0.36 per cent last Monday after the deal to preserve NAFTA helped ease trade worries.
“There were concerns that the resulting confusion would exceed that of the U.S.-China trade row if NAFTA was scrapped.
“While it appears like Canada and Mexico caved in to the United States, the outcome is positive for global trade and the economy,” said Yoshihisa Maruyama, chief market economist at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo.