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ASIA SHARES EDGE UP, SENTIMENT FRAGILE ON CHINA GROWTH FEARS:

Asian shares were cautiously higher on Tuesday after a late revival on Wall Street, though global growth fears stoked by China’s stringent COVID-19 curbs and an expected streak of aggressive Federal Reserve tightening sapped risk appetite.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) ticked up 0.8%, helped by China’s blue-chip index (.CSI300) adding 0.33%, after its worst day in two years on Monday. Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index (.HSI) also bounced by 0.6%.

Yet sentiment remained fragile, after Twitter Inc (TWTR.N), shares rose on news that Elon Musk, the world's richest person, clinked a deal to pay $44 billion cash for the social media platform populated by millions of users and global leaders.

The nervousness about China's economic slowdown hit Australian shares in early trade, with the local benchmark down 1.78%, hurt particularly by declines in miners.

Japan's Nikkei stock index (.N225) rose 0.57%. U.S. stock futures were little changed in Asia trade.

The stringent lockdown in China, and its proliferation as cases spread to other big cities like Beijing, is weighing on the economic growth outlook and investment sentiment, said Manishi Raychaudhuri, Asia-Pacific equity strategist at BNP Paribas.

“If the lockdown situation persists for longer," it impacts China's economy significantly and "also have an impact on the supply chains across the world,” he said.

On top of the China lockdown worries, markets have also been fretting that an aggressive pace of Fed tightening could derail the global economy, which has only just started to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

The Fed is expected to raise rates by half a percentage point at each of its next two meetings. FEDWATCH

Lockdown in China’s financial hub Shanghai has dragged into a fourth week, as authorities stick to their “dynamic zero-Covid” policy to combat the latest outbreak of Omicron cases.

In currency markets, the dollar was in fine fettle on safe-haven demand. China's offshore yuan was steadier in early trading, at 6.5564 per dollar after the People's Bank of China said late on Monday it would cut the number of foreign exchange banks must hold as reserves.

That helped it recover from a year-low of 6.609 per dollar on Monday, hurt by fears about China's economic growth.

The dollar was higher against most peers, with its index against a basket of rivals at 101.58, just off its overnight two-year peak.

Benchmark US 10-year yields were steady at 2.8121% in morning deals. Treasury yields retreated on Monday from hawkish Fed-induced highs, as the China lockdown and growth fears sent investors to the safety of U.S. bonds.

The same worries jolted the oil market on Monday, slicing about 4% of its value to its lowest in two weeks. In early trade in Asia, U.S. crude steadied a bit, up 0.05% at $98.59 per barrel and Brent was at $102.42, up 0.1%.

Nasdaq ends sharply higher after Twitter agrees to be bought by Musk.

Wall Street rose on Monday, with the Nasdaq ending sharply higher after Twitter agreed to be bought by billionaire Elon Musk, sparking a late-day rally in growth stocks.

Twitter (TWTR.N) ended up 5.6% after announcing it would be bought by Musk in a deal that will shift control of the social media giant to the world's richest person.

The S&P 500 traded in negative territory for much of the session but extended gains after Twitter's announcement. The S&P 500 growth index (.IGX) ended up over 1%, also bouncing back from an earlier decline.

"You can tell growth wanted to rally all day but the market was holding it down. The Twitter news came and that was just a green light to start buying some of the growth names. They have been oversold for a while," said Dennis Dick, a trader at Bright Trading LLC.

Earlier, uncertainty reverberated across world markets, with Chinese shares marking their biggest slump since a pandemic-led selling in February 2020 and European stocks falling to their lowest in over a month on fears of strict restrictions in China.

Nasdaq ends sharply higher after Twitter agrees to be bought by Musk

Wall Street rose on Monday, with the Nasdaq ending sharply higher after Twitter agreed to be bought by billionaire Elon Musk, sparking a late day rally in growth stocks.

Twitter (TWTR.N) ended up 5.6% after announcing it would be bought by Musk in a deal that will shift control of the social media giant to the world's richest person.

The S&P 500 traded in negative territory for much of the session but extended gains after Twitter's announcement. The S&P 500 growth index (.IGX) ended up over 1%, also bouncing back from an earlier decline.

Earlier, uncertainty reverberated across world markets, with Chinese shares marking their biggest slump since a pandemic-led selling in February 2020 and European stocks falling to their lowest in over a month on fears of strict restrictions in China.

The S&P energy index (.SPNY) dropped 3.3% as Brent crude prices dropped almost 5% toward $100 a barrel.

Oil majors Chevron Corp (CVX.N) and ExxonMobil (XOM.N) declined more than 2%, and oilfield services companies Schlumberger NV (SLB.N) and Halliburton Co (HAL.N) also fell more than 6%.

Google-owner Alphabet (GOOGL.O) rallied 2.9% ahead of its quarterly report after the bell on Tuesday. Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Facebook owner Meta Platforms (FB.O) also gained.

ETHER PREPARES FOR EPIC 'MERGE' IN QUEST TO ECLIPSE BITCOIN

Ether has promised to do better. It has promised to go to the next level, edging out crypto rivals and even outshining the godfather, bitcoin. But the clocks ticking.

The No.2 cryptocurrency was supposed to be weeks away from the "merge", a transformative June upgrade of its blockchain Ethereum to make it faster, cheaper and less power-hungry, holding out the prospect of a meaner and cleaner crypto future.

The anticipation had supported ether this year, even as inflation and monetary tightening shackled bitcoin. But that merge - which would see ether mining transition away from the energy-intensive proof-of-work method to proof-of-stake - has been delayed, frustrating investors.

"The timeline for seeing this launch continues to extend," said Brendan Playford, founder and CEO of decentralized financial data platform Masa Finance.

“It's certainly plausible that Ethereum's highly anticipated upgrade to a proof-of-stake system could be delayed again given that this transition is highly complicated and still uncertain as to whether it can actually deliver on its promise of lowering costs and increasing transaction speeds.”

Ether fell 8% from $3,215 to $2,947 on April 11, the day Ethereum lead developer Tim Beiko said on Twitter that the June rollout had been pushed back as tests continued. It is down 13% this month, at $2,844.

“It won't be June, but likely in a few months after," Beiko wrote in his tweet. "No firm date yet, but we're definitely in the final chapter.”