By Harry Robertson and Rae Wee
LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -European shares dipped and Hong Kong equities tumbled on Tuesday as a lack of details on China's long-awaited fiscal stimulus caused a rally in Chinese shares to fizzle.
U.S. stock futures perked up, however, after markets there fell on Monday as investors weighed up a jump in oil prices on the widening conflict in the Middle East, and reassessed the pace of interest rate cuts after strong U.S. jobs data.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slumped 9.4% on Tuesday, giving up some of the big gains it made during a Chinese holiday, in a sign of profit-taking and waning investor patience.
European shares fell, with China-sensitive mining and luxury companies among the biggest losers, although they later rebounded somewhat.
The continent-wide Stoxx 600 index was last down 0.44%, while Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.07% and Germany's DAX was 0.13% lower.
China's CSI300 blue-chip index surged 10% in early trade to its strongest since July 2022, as the country's markets reopened after the week-long National Day break.
Yet the index fell back - finishing 5.9% higher - after the chairman of China's economic planner Zheng Shanjie provided little detail of fresh fiscal stimulus to complement the burst of monetary stimulus announced two weeks ago.
"Essentially the markets were anticipating China would announce a bit more detail on the fiscal stimulus measures," said Aneeka Gupta, director of macroeconomic research at WisdomTree.
"Clearly that has not panned out as they've reopened today, and I think that's having a bit of a dampening impact on European stocks."
Europe was also taking a lead from a 1% drop in U.S. shares on Monday, as angst about Federal Reserve rate cuts and the Middle East took a toll.
However, U.S. futures picked up on Tuesday, with those for the S&P 500 index rising 0.3% and Nasdaq 100 contracts climbing 0.4%.
OIL PRICES DIP
Oil prices fell back after jumping on Monday due to the widening conflict in the Middle East as well as concerns about supply disruptions due to storms in the United States.
Brent crude futures were last down 1.7% at $79.49 a barrel, having surged above $80 a barrel for the first time in more than a month in the previous session.
Hezbollah's deputy leader said in comments broadcast on Tuesday that the group backs efforts to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon, as Israeli forces began ground operations in the southwest of the country.
Yields on benchmark 10-year U.S. government bonds hovered above the 4% level after rising over the last two sessions in the wake of Friday's surprisingly strong U.S. jobs report.
Traders are now pricing in a roughly 10% chance the Fed could hold rates next month and see around 50 basis points of cuts over the rest of the year.
"The market was too aggressive going into the payroll numbers in terms of rate cut pricing," said Guy Miller, chief market strategist at Zurich Insurance Group.
"Where we stand today is probably close to what I would call fair value for Fed pricing."
The dollar was on the back foot, falling 0.2% against the Japanese yen to 147.91, while the euro was up 0.1% at $1.0983.
Copper prices fell on Tuesday to their lowest in two weeks as metals markets reacted to the lack of detail on China's stimulus.