Sydney — Asian shares lost steam on Tuesday after scaling a five-month high as investors waited to see if Washington and Beijing can clinch a trade deal, while the pound advanced on hopes UK Prime Minister Theresa May will delay a Brexit deadline. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.5% from its highest since mid-September as US and Chinese negotiators work to hammer out a deal that would end a protracted tit-for-tat tariff battle. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would delay a tariff hike on $200bn of Chinese imports in the clearest sign yet that both sides were making progress in the talks, but he also sounded a note of caution, saying a deal “could happen fairly soon, or it might not happen at all”. Tuesday’s losses in Asian stock markets come as JPMorgan analysts urged investors to “curb some of their enthusiasm” over the trade talks, saying the extension to the deadline was a “foregone conclusion”. “Most assumed this action would occur,” the...

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