* MSCI Asia ex-Japan -0.4%, MSCI World flat
* European shares 0.3% higher after Monday's big falls
* U.S. tariffs on Brazil and Argentina 'effective
immediately'
* German politics keep bonds under pressure
(Updates throughout, changes byline, dateline)
By Sujata Rao
LONDON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - European shares opened higher on
Tuesday, attempting to claw their way back from three days of
falls though the mood remained gloomy after U.S. President
Donald Trump showed he was ready to open new trade war fronts
despite signs of economic damage.
The United States has threatened duties of up to 100% on
French goods while Trump tweeted he would slap tariffs on Brazil
and Argentina attacking what he saw as both countries' "massive
devaluation of their currencies." France said it would respond strongly to duties on its goods
such as champagne, handbags and other products, mooted because
of France's new digital services tax that Washington says harms
U.S. tech companies.
A pan-European equity index .STOXX , which had slumped 1.6%
on Monday for its biggest one-day loss in two months, edged up
0.3% though French shares were flat .FCHI .
Shares in some luxury goods firms extended losses, however,
with LVMH LVMH.PA shedding almost 2% to one-month lows though
others such as L'Oreal OREP.PA managed to rise modestly.
"Today you have a bounce, but it's fairly mechanical," said
Stéphane Barbier de la Serre, macro strategist at Makor Capital
Markets. "The fall was really steep yesterday, and now the
biggest risk is that the market wakes up to the reality that
macro is really bad."
U.S. stock futures ESc1 pointed to a firmer Wall Street
open.
But that follows a gloomy session in Asia where an MSCI
index of Asia-Pacific shares ex-Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was down
0.4%, Japan's Nikkei .N225 shed 0.6% and Australian shares
.AXJO posted their worst day in two months with a 2.2% drop.
China's response to U.S. support for Hong Kong pro-democracy
protesters has also chilled sentiment. It said U.S. military
ships and aircraft may not visit Hong Kong, and announced
sanctions against some U.S. non-government organisations.
MSCI's world stocks index .MIWD00000PUS was flat at a
one-week low.
China's blue-chip share index .CSI300 started the
recovery, closing in the black, as did the Shanghai benchmark
.SSEC which earlier plumbed a three-month low.
Markets had drawn some cheer from upbeat Chinese factory
surveys as well as higher-than-expected manufacturing and
inflation readings from the euro zone. But the U.S. Institute for Supply Management (ISM) cast a
pall on hopes for an economic upturn, showing that manufacturing
had contracted for a fourth straight month as new orders slid.
That pushed U.S. shares off recent record highs,
with all three indexes losing 0.6% to 0.9% .N .
"If you look at U.S. manufacturing, all the components were
falling. If you look at the new orders, the components were at
10-year lows ... but no one seems to look at these," Barbier de
la Serre said.
"The market has been listening to the narrative of an
impending cyclical upturn, there has been a certain amount of
herding, trend following," he said, referring to the recent
bounce in equity markets.
Hopes are pinned on the U.S. consumer to keep the economy
afloat. Cyber Monday sales were expected to hit a record
following $11.6 billion in online sales during the Thanksgiving
and Black Friday shopping bonanza.
BOND TURNAROUND
The improved mood in Europe did not much affect the German
bond market, with yields staying at three-week highs as chances
grew of the SPD party leaving the ruling coalition, raising the
prospect of early elections or a minority government.
Yields on benchmark German 10-year debt DE10YT=RR rose 1
basis point to -0.26%, their highest since Nov. 13 and up more
than 8 bps from Friday's close. Yields on southern European
bonds also rose, with Italian 10-year debt IT10YT=RR at 1.45%.
The move higher in German yields over the past two sessions
has narrowed the spread between German and U.S. benchmark yields
to near its lowest since February 2018.
In currency markets, the dollar traded near a one-week low
versus the yen JPY=D3 and near the lowest in almost two weeks
against the euro EUR=EBS , undermined by the weak U.S.
manufacturing data.
But the main mover was the Australian dollar AUD=D3 , which
rose around half a percent after the Reserve Bank of Australia
kept its cash rate on hold at 0.75% and stuck with an optimistic
outlook for the economy. Oil prices firmed on expectations that the Organisation of
the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies may
agree to deepen output cuts at a meeting this week. Brent crude
futures LCOc1 added 0.5% to $61.19 per barrel.
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