In This Article:
* Ex-Japan Asia down 0.2 pct, Nikkei falls 0.6 pct
* Investors ponders implications of inverted U.S. yield curve
* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
By Hideyuki Sano
TOKYO, March 27 (Reuters) - Asian shares slipped on Wednesday, giving up their small gains made the previous day, as investors tried to come to terms with a sharp shift in U.S. bond markets and the implications for the world's top economy.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.2 percent while Japan's Nikkei lost 0.6 percent.
Wall Street's main indexes tallied solid gains on Tuesday but finished below their session highs in a reflection of the underlying concerns about the economic outlook.
The S&P 500 gained 0.72 percent while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.71 percent.
The 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield inched up to 2.425 percent from Monday's 15-month low of 2.377 percent, though the yield curve remained inverted, with three-month bills yielding 2.461 percent, more than 10-year bonds.
The inversion spooked many investors as this phenomenon has preceded every U.S. recession over the past 50 years, triggering a dramatic selloff in stock markets across the globe late last week and a stampede into longer-dated U.S. government debt.
"While the markets now got out of the extreme nervousness about the U.S. yield curve, there is no denying that U.S. data has been soft of late, hardly dispelling worries about the outlook," said Hirokazu Kabeya, chief global strategist at Daiwa Securities.
The silver lining for stock bulls is that in the past it has usually taken many months before the United States had slipped into recession after the curve was first inverted.
Yet the signs from a raft of economic data, including a set of indicators on Tuesday, weren't encouraging.
Home building fell more than expected in February as construction of single-family homes dropped to near a two-year low while the consumer confidence index by the Conference Board fell unexpectedly.
"We are entering a new phase in markets as the U.S. monetary policy cycle has come to a turning point, from rate hikes to rate cuts," said Akira Takei, bond fund manager at Asset Management One.
"Not all market participants have changed their mind-set yet. But as time goes by, it will become clear that a rate cut is the real possibility. The curve will be inverted further until the Fed cut rates," he said.
Many major economies in the world, including China, Europe and Japan, are already slowing down, not helped by uncertainties stemming from trade frictions between the U.S. and China as well as Brexit.