Tokyo — The New Year rally in Asian shares ran out of steam on Thursday as concerns about the US administration’s protectionist stance hit Wall Street while US bonds were dented by speculation China may curtail buying. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.1% in early trade, slipping further from Tuesday’s 10-year peak. Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.6%. US shares snapped their New Year rally on Wednesday while the Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso fell after a Reuters report said Canada increasingly believed that US President Donald Trump would soon announce his intention to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement treaty. US bond prices tumbled, boosting the benchmark 10-year treasuries yield to a 10-month high of 2.597% after Bloomberg reported that China, the biggest foreign holder of US treasuries, could slow or stop buying government bonds. "I would think that China is flexing its muscles as the US is looking into measures to deal with its tr...
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