A woman walks past an electronic board showing the Nikkei stock index outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan. Picture: REUTERS/KIM KYUNG-HOON
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.5% to its lowest since June 20. Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.1%. Money market futures are still fully pricing in a 25 basis point cut at the Fed's next policy meeting on July 30-31, but have almost priced out a larger 50bps reduction. “After a strong rally in June that more than erased the May drawdown, valuations look demanding, underpinning our underweight stance," the firm said."We expect equities to perform sideways in the coming weeks, but with the possibility of rotation to quality cyclicals.”