Asian shares, dollar slip as passage of US healthcare bill doubtful

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares stepped back from more than two-year highs on Tuesday and the dollar extended losses as passage of a U.S. healthcare bill grew doubtful, and as investors bet the Federal Reserve will be more cautious about raising interest rates. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.1 percent, a day after scaling its loftiest levels since April 2015. Republican Senators Jerry Moran and Mike Lee announced their opposition on Monday to legislation to dismantle and replace the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, leaving it without enough votes to pass. U.S. S&P stock futures edged down slightly after the news, but then steadied and were flat on the day. Wall Street ended little changed on Monday in low-volume trading, as investors braced for a flood of second-quarter earnings reports later this week. Future & Option Trading Tips

The dollar, already down in early trade, extended losses. It slipped 0.4 percent on the day to 112.21 yen, well below its nearly four-month high of 114.495 touched last week. The euro jumped 0.5 percent to $1.1529, pushing to its highest since May 2016. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, wallowed at 94.773, plumbing its lowest levels since September 2016. "It's hard to be bullish on the dollar, both from the monetary side and from the U.S. politics side," said Masafumi Yamamoto, chief currency strategist at Mizuho Securities. Fading support for U.S. President Donald Trump was weighing on the dollar, he said, as the U.S. administration struggled to gather enough backers in the Senate to pass the healthcare reform bill, raising doubts about how the rest of its ambitious agenda would fare. Financial Astrology Tips