Asian shares defensive, dollar struggles near 1-month lows

Asian shares defensive, dollar struggles near 1-month lows

Australia's benchmark index slipped 0.4% as miners were dented by weaker prices for iron ore and coal.Global shares have surged in recent weeks led by successful rollouts of COVID-19 vaccines around the world, U.S. stimulus packages and higher U.S. inflation expectations."However, the back up in treasury yields has begun to exert a valuation test on some parts of the global equity markets with value outperforming growth," Jefferies analysts wrote in a note."Equally, there are fewer stocks offering decent yields and higher capital gains."JPMorgan Asset Management was trimming its overall Emerging Markets (EM) exposure "mostly driven by a less sanguine outlook on EM Asia," its global multi-asset strategist Patrik Schowitz wrote in a note."China has now recovered enough that policymakers can afford to be more conservative and worry more about containing debt and property market risks. That will be a headwind to China equities, despite the solid economy," Schowitz added.Chinese shares started in the red on Thursday with the blue-chip CSI300 index down 0.2%.JPMorgan Asset Management is less keen on tech shares, which Schowitz said, should have less upside to earnings expectations in the near-term and are "very expensive" relative to value.Overnight, Wall Street ended mixed with the tech sector the biggest underperformer after Coinbase was sold off on its