Asia shares stumble as weak China trade stokes growth worries

Asian shares wobbled on Monday after dismal Chinese trade data eclipsed a strong U.S. jobs report, raising concerns about a deepening slowdown in the world's second-largest economy and sending the Australian dollar sliding.

TOKYO: Asian shares wobbled on Monday after dismal Chinese trade data eclipsed a strong U.S. jobs report, raising concerns about a deepening slowdown in the world's second-largest economy and sending the Australian dollar sliding.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.8 percent while U.S. stock futures also shed 0.4 percent. Japan's Nikkei share average bucked the trend and rose 0.2 percent on the back of a weaker yen.
Data published on Sunday showed China's trade performance slumped in January, with exports falling 3.3 percent from year-ago levels while imports tumbled 19.9 percent, far worse than analysts had expected. The data highlighted deepening weakness in the Chinese economy.
"The data shows that an economic slowdown is becoming a reality. If the government brings down its growth target next month, the markets will take it even more seriously," said Shuji Shirota, head of macro strategy at HSBC in Tokyo.
The Australian dollar, often used as a proxy for bets on the Chinese economy because of the country's trade links to China, fell 0.4 percent in early trade to US$0.7775.
The poor China trade figures took some of the shine off robust U.S. payroll gains of 257,000 in January. Hourly wages also rebounded, increasing 12 cents last month for a 2.2 percent increase from a year earlier, the largest such gain since August.
As the data put a mid-year rate hike from the Federal Reserve back on the table, U.S. debt yields shot up, with the benchmark 10-year yield hitting a four-week high of 1.965 percent on Friday.
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