* Global shares on track for biggest 1-day fall in 4 weeks
* Commodities tumble from record highs on Goldman report
* Yen up as investors unwind carry trades
By Sebastian Tong
LONDON, April 12 (Reuters) - Global share prices slipped on
Tuesday while commodity prices tumbled from record peaks after a
Goldman Sachs report advised investors to lock in profits before
oil and other commodity markets reverse.
Retreating commodity prices weighed on global equities,
sending MSCI's main world equity index <.MIWD00000PUS> down 0.7
percent by 0925 GMT, on track for its biggest one-day fall in
four weeks.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index <> of top European shares
slipped 1.2 percent, with miners and energy firms among the
heaviest losses. Emerging markets <.MSCIEF>, which count several
resource-exporters among their ranks, fell 1.3 percent.
The bout of profit-taking that knocked Brent crude <LC0c1>
off Monday's 2-1/2 year highs was triggered by a report from
long-term commodity bull Goldman Sachs <GS.N>, which warned its
clients that oil and other raw material prices could retreat
after strong recent gains. []
Spot gold <XAU=>retreated from Monday's record peak while
silver <XAG=> sagged from the previous session's 31-year high.
Market sentiment was also hit by Japan's move to raise the
severity of radiation leakage at its stricken Fukushima nuclear
plant, putting it on a par with the worst nuclear disaster at
Chernobyl, and its warning that the economic damage could be
worse than initially thought. [] []
The failure of U.S. aluminium producer Alcoa Inc <AA.N> to
meet analysts' revenue forecasts added to investor uncertainty
over the first-quarter earnings. []
Heightened risk aversion prompted investors to unwind
carry-trade positions utilising the Japanese yen <JPY=> as a low
interest-rate currency to buy higher yielding assets.
"The sharp pickup in speculator demand for yen-funded carry
trades (over previous weeks) leads to a greater risk of
correction if risk aversion picks up in the near-term. However
we still think the yen is on a weakening trend," said Lee
Hardman, currency analyst at BTM-UFJ.
The yen had slid since the Group of Seven (G7) countries
sold the currency last month in their first joint intervention
in more than a decade after the currency spiked to record highs
days after last month's massive earthquake and tsunami.
Expectations that the Bank of Japan will keep policy loose
to help the economy recover is likely to curb the yen's gains.
However, the steadier yen offered the dollar some respite,
allowing the greenback to firm against a basket of major
currencies <.DXY> to rise further from Friday's 16-month low.
The downward trend for the dollar is also seen intact.
Two of the Federal Reserve's most powerful officials, Janet
Yellen and William Dudley, said the U.S. central bank should
stick to its super-easy monetary policy as inflation was not a
threat and unemployment remains too high. []
Diverging monetary policy direction among the world's major
central banks is likely to remain an investment theme in the
coming months.
A below-forecast UK inflation reading in March knocked
sterling to a 5-1/2 month low against the euro <EURGBP=D4>
[]
The June Bund future <FGBLc1> rose 35 ticks while emerging
sovereign spreads <11EMJ> widened 3 basis points to trade at 251
bps over U.S. Treasuries.
(Additional reporting by Neal Armstrong; Editing by Catherine
Evans)
