News

By Tom Westbrook

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Chinese internet stocks slumped on regulatory news on Friday to drag Asian stocks down for the final full trading week of the year, while the dollar wobbled ahead of U.S. inflation data that's expected to validate bets on rate cuts in 2024.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gave up gains to trade 0.3% lower after China issued draft rules that would impose spending limits on gamers. For the week the index is down 0.6%.

Netease stock was down 29% at one point and Tencent shares more than 12%, pulling the Hang Seng 1.2% lower.

"It's not necessarily the regulation itself - it's the policy risk that's too high," said Steven Leung, executive director of institutional sales at broker UOB Kay Hian in Hong Kong.

"People had thought this kind of risk should have been over and had started to look at fundamentals again. It hurts confidence a lot."

Banking shares helped Japan's Nikkei rise 0.2%. The euro poked above $1.10.

Outside Asia, markets have been in a festive mood for weeks as inflation data around the world has showed a slowdown and the Federal Reserve signalled it was done raising interest rates.

Two-year U.S. Treasury yields are down almost 38 basis points in a week and a half and fell 2 bps overnight when third-quarter U.S. core PCE inflation was revised down to 2%.

The data has markets girding for a downside surprise on the last key number before Christmas, November's personal consumption expenditure index, due at 1330 GMT with consensus expectations for a monthly increase of 0.2%.

"Analysts are confident it shouldn't be higher than 0.2%," said National Australia Bank (OTC:NABZY)'s head of currency strategy Ray Attrill in Sydney.

"Could we get 0.1%? It'd probably take a 0.1% to see and extension of the moves we have seen."

Overnight U.S. stocks bounced back from a sudden slide at the end of Wednesday's session and the S&P 500 rose 1%.

The index is within 2% of its record high.

S&P 500 futures dipped 0.1% in Asia and Nike (NYSE:NKE) shares slid almost 12% in after-hours trade after the company cut its sales forecast, blaming cautious consumers.

European futures were flat.

Oil is set for a weekly gain on nervousness about the security of Red Sea shipping, but prices fell overnight after Angola said it would quit OPEC, raising questions about the producer group's efforts to limit global supply. [O/R]

Brent crude futures were up 58 cents to $79.97 a barrel in Asia trade on Friday, for a weekly gain of 4.5%.

TALE OF TWO HAVENS

In currency trade the dollar has come under pressure from markets' expectation of more than 150 bps of rate cuts in 2024.

At $1.1002 the euro is up 1% this week, even though a similar amount of cuts are priced in for Europe next year. The common currency is also up about 1% against sterling, which fell sharply this week after a surprise dive in inflation.

Sterling was set for its biggest weekly drop on the euro and against the Aussie dollar for three months. It last bought $1.2686 and traded at 86.71 pence per euro.

The dollar index is down 0.7% this week to 101.85. For the year it is down 2.4%. Among G10 currencies the best performer of the year was the Swiss franc, up nearly 8% on the dollar, while the yen's 7.8% drop made it the worst.

NAB's Attrill noted the mirror moves of the two so-called "safe haven" currencies underscored the overwhelming influence of the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) monetary policy. It has stuck with negative interest rates while the rest of the world has hiked.

The dollar rose marginally to 142.43 yen on Friday.

Gold is set to end the week and the year ahead, with a 12% gain so far this year to $2,049 an ounce.

Bitcoin is up 160% this year to $44,114.