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Asia shares at 11-week high; dollar loses altitude after Trump presser

Asian shares heaved a sigh of relief after Trump left out talk of possible tariffs against Chinese exports.

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The US dollar nursed widespread losses on Thursday after President-elect Donald Trump's long-awaited news briefing provided scant clarity on future fiscal policies, disappointing bulls wagering on major stimulus.

Neither did Trump mention possible tariffs against Chinese exports, a relief for Asian share markets that have feared the outbreak of a global trade war.

It was enough to help MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climb 0.8% to its highest since late October. 

Australia's main index added 0.3%, aided by strength in bulk commodity prices, while Shanghai stocks were flat.

Going the other way, Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.9% as the yen climbed on a retreating dollar.

Wall Street had overcome its brief wobble to end Wednesday firmer. The Dow added 0.5%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.28% and the Nasdaq 0.21%.

Health stocks were not so lucky after Trump said pharmaceutical companies were "getting away with murder" by charging high prices.

The S&P 500 healthcare index lost 1%, while the Nasdaq biotechnology index sank 2.96%.

Trump's first news conference since the November 8 election contained no details on tax cuts and infrastructure spending, two factors that had fuelled the five-week rally in stocks and a sell-off in global bond markets.

"President elect Trump's first news conference since late July has left a veritable laundry list of questions unanswered for markets," wrote analysts at Westpac.

"The news conference was a far cry from the market friendly, pro-growth "presidential" comments that Trump delivered at his acceptance speech on November 9," they added.

"The issue is that markets arguably priced in too much reflation without any solid policy detail."

The uncertainty about what policies will actually be pursued has seen yields on 10-year Treasury notes rally from a 2.64% peak over the last month to stand at 2.349% on Thursday.

The US dollar, likewise, has had to surrender some of its gains in the last week or so. Wednesday's session was especially volatile with the dollar rallying hard into the Trump event, only to recoil at his vagueness on policy.

The dollar index was nursing a grudge at 101.520 on Thursday, having been as high as 102.950 at one stage overnight.

The euro had rallied to $1.0602 from a trough of $1.0454, while the dollar lapsed to 114.79 yen from a top of 116.87. Sterling also bounced from a 10-week low of $1.2048 to stand at $1.2184.

In commodity markets, oil was a shade softer after data showed rising US crude inventories.

US crude was trading 7 cents lower at $52.18, though that followed gains of nearly 3% overnight. Brent crude was off 3 cents at $55.07 a barrel. 

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