In Economy
On Tuesday, Asian shares paused at a five-month peak on signs Washington and Beijing were making progress on a trade deal.
U.S. house prices are forecast to rise this year at the slowest pace in more than half a decade, as a dearth of single-family homes and higher mortgage rates restrain activity in an already-expensive market, a Reuters poll of housing analysts found.
Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said he expected China's economic growth to pick up in the latter half of this year thanks to stimulus measures taken by the government.
On Monday, Wall Street's major indexes ended higher but well below the session's highs, with the Dow up 0.2%, S&P 500 adding 0.1% and Nasdaq gaining 0.4%.
On Monday, The benchmark Shanghai Composite leaped 5.6%, its biggest daily percentage gain since July 2015, according to Reuters. That lifted it into a bull market, which is defined as a rise of at least 20% from a recent low.
Investors were also wary of weakening estimates for current quarter earnings, with Wall Street expecting a 0.9% decline in S&P first-quarter earnings per share compared with expectations for 5.3% growth on Jan. 1, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
In Currency Market
Early Asia, Sterling jumped to $1.3149 trade after Bloomberg reported May was expected to allow her Cabinet to discuss extending the Brexit deadline beyond March 29 at a crunch meeting later in the day.
The risk-on mood nudging the dollar to 111.23 against the safe haven Japanese yen, a level not seen since late December. The greenback was last at 110.93.
The dollar index was flat at 96.413 against a basket of currencies.
Focus now shifts to an appearance by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell before a U.S. Senate committee on Tuesday.
The euro idled at $1.1359, staying within the $1.1213/1.1570 range that it has held since mid-October.
The People's Bank of China set the yuan reference rate at 6.6952 vs the previous day's fix of 6.7131.
In Commodity Market
On Tuesday, U.S. crude was last down 14 cents at $55.34 a barrel in early Asian trading while Brent 3 cents lower on Monday at $64.96.
On Monday, Oil prices took a knock to post their largest daily percentage drop this year after Trump called on OPEC to ease its efforts to boost crude prices, which he said were "getting too high."
On Monday, Mexico's economy ministry announced it had reached a preliminary agreement to renew 15 percent steel tariffs over six months with countries that do not currently have free trade agreements with Mexico.
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