Among gainers were Hong Kong's Hang Seng index and South Korea's KOSPI. "If you do see a US fiscal stimulus in 2018 all its likely to do is accelerate the need for further US policy tightening which indirectly could be negative for emerging markets," said Chris Weston, Melbourne-based chief market strategist at IG. "If real yields trend higher and the US dollar rises further that would put emerging markets and Asia on the back burner," Weston added.Yields on two-year notes rose to 1.806 per cent , while those on the 10-year bond climbed to 2.4026 per cent .The dollar index added 0.3 per cent against major currencies. Bitcoin hovered close to an all-time high of $11,800 set on Sunday after the US derivatives regulator allowed CME Group and CBOE Global Markets to list bitcoin futures.The cryptocurrency was last trading around $11,375 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange.In commodity markets, US crude was off 40 cents at $57.96. Brent crude slipped 31 cents to $63.42, drifting away from a near 2-1/2 year peak of $64.65 touched last month.Spot gold was off 0.45 per cent to $1,274.4 an ounce.

Source: Economic Times December 04, 2017 02:19 UTC