Asian stocks
handed back earlier modest gains and drifted lower on Monday, running
short of incentives to push past two-year highs with many key markets
closed for holidays.
The pound, meanwhile, nursed losses after a poll showed a shrinking lead for Prime Minister Theresa May's party in Britain's upcoming elections. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was down 0.2 percent.
Taking cues after the S&P 500 .SPX and Nasdaq .IXIC scraped to record closing highs, it had earlier risen towards a two-year peak marked on Thursday.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 edged up 0.1 percent while weaker commodities pushed down Australian shares 0.5 percent. The closure of Chinese, British and U.S. markets on Monday deprived investors of potential catalysts and kept overall trading subdued.
Brushing aside a North Korean missile launch, South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 initially touched an intraday record high before pulling back 0.1 percent. It was on track to snap a six-day winning streak.
Pyongyang fired what appeared to be a short-range ballistic missile early on Monday.
The dollar index against a basket of major currencies was steady at 97.465 .DXY after rising on Friday thanks to upbeat U.S. gross domestic product data.
The index fell to a 6-1/2-month low below 97.00 a week ago on U.S. political concerns centered on President Donald Trump, but have since crept back.
The dollar and U.S. stocks would face downward risks if trouble for the Trump administration becomes a long-term concern, said Masafumi Yamamoto, chief forex strategist at Mizuho Securities.
The greenback was steady at 111.290 yen JPY=, with the safe-haven Japanese currency showing little reaction to North Korea's missile launch.
The pound, meanwhile, nursed losses after a poll showed a shrinking lead for Prime Minister Theresa May's party in Britain's upcoming elections. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was down 0.2 percent.
Taking cues after the S&P 500 .SPX and Nasdaq .IXIC scraped to record closing highs, it had earlier risen towards a two-year peak marked on Thursday.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 edged up 0.1 percent while weaker commodities pushed down Australian shares 0.5 percent. The closure of Chinese, British and U.S. markets on Monday deprived investors of potential catalysts and kept overall trading subdued.
Brushing aside a North Korean missile launch, South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 initially touched an intraday record high before pulling back 0.1 percent. It was on track to snap a six-day winning streak.
Pyongyang fired what appeared to be a short-range ballistic missile early on Monday.
The dollar index against a basket of major currencies was steady at 97.465 .DXY after rising on Friday thanks to upbeat U.S. gross domestic product data.
The index fell to a 6-1/2-month low below 97.00 a week ago on U.S. political concerns centered on President Donald Trump, but have since crept back.
The dollar and U.S. stocks would face downward risks if trouble for the Trump administration becomes a long-term concern, said Masafumi Yamamoto, chief forex strategist at Mizuho Securities.
The greenback was steady at 111.290 yen JPY=, with the safe-haven Japanese currency showing little reaction to North Korea's missile launch.
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