• Asian shares retreat 0.3 percent
  • Brent rises, U.S. crude drops
  • Dubai’s index gains 4.6 percent
  • Dollar gains, gold prices weaken

Global markets

Asian shares dropped in early trading on Tuesday, as escalating trade tensions between the United States and China weighed on investor sentiment.

The United States began imposing 15 percent tariffs on a variety of Chinese goods on Sunday and China began imposing new duties on U.S. crude oil, the latest escalation in their trade war.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS shed 0.3 percent.

“We have so many problems around the world, starting from the U.S.-China trade war and Brexit. But investors appear to be getting used to be exposed to them,” Hiroyuki Ueno, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management told Reuters.

“No one really thinks Washington and Beijing will solve the issues. But as long as the U.S. economy keeps going, stock prices will have limited downside,” he said.

Oil prices

Oil prices were mixed early on Tuesday.

U.S. crude CLc1 was down 21 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $54.89 a barrel by 0244 GMT, while Brent LCOc1 was 5 cents higher at $58.71 a barrel.

“Oil will struggle to make substantial headway topside this week with no progress on trade talks or meetings even, soft data from Asia and a possible cracking of OPEC’s resolve to control production,” Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA told Reuters.

Output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose in August for the first month this year as higher supply from Iraq and Nigeria outweighed restraint by top Saudi Arabia and losses caused by U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Middle East markets

Saudi Arabia’s index gained 0.7 percent, with Al Rajhi Bank adding 1.5 percent and Saudi British Bank advancing 2.3 percent.

Dubai’s index added 4.6 percent as Emirates NBD gained 14.9 percent. The bank reached its highest level since October 2007, after it raised foreign ownership limit to 20 percent from 5 percent with immediate effect.

The Abu Dhabi index added 0.7 percent, offsetting some losses from the previous session. Emirates Telecommunications rose 1.9 percent and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank surged 4.3 percent.

Qatar’s index edged up 0.2 percent with Qatar International Islamic Bank climbing 3.3 percent and Doha Bank hiking 4.6 percent.

Egypt’s blue-chip index EGX30 gained 1.2 percent with the country's largest lender Commercial International Bank rising 2.4 percent and El Sewedy Electric gaining 5.8 percent.

Kuwait’s premier market index fell 0.3 percent while Bahrain’s index added 0.5 percent.

Currencies

The dollar rose early on Tuesday.

The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.4 percent.

Precious metals

Gold prices fell on a stronger dollar.

Spot gold was down 0.5 percent at $1,523.26 per ounce at 0406 GMT.

U.S. gold futures were up 0.2 percent at $1,532.20 an ounce.

(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Mily Chakrabarty)

(gerard.aoun@refinitiv.com)

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